Swindon's Union Square by Blue Skies

Blue skies! Quick as you can!

The Union Square car park is rapidly catching up in height to it's neighbouring structure, the residential block.

Union Square Sets It's Shape In The Skyline

Taken just before Christmas, these photographs by Ed Howell and I, show the shape the first phase of Union Square is having on the Swindon skyline.

Swindon's Regeneration : Past and Future Icons

The former Swindon College is gone, but are there other 60s and 70s building that changing tastes and attitudes to architecture will make us save in the regeneration?

Swindon's built environment is a jumble of building periods, styles, quality and uses.

The question that we will have to think about in the next few years is, which buildings we might not initially want to save, will changing attitudes to style and taste make us reconsider?

If you suggested demolishing Swindon's Railway Village now, you'd meet huge resistance from many areas of society, but if you'd suggested it in the 1950s, chances are a different set of arguments in favour could have beaten early attempts at 'heritage' and 'preservation'.

Will Swindon have to save some of it's large collection of sixties and seventies buildings in the near future when regeneration goes up a gear?

Long-Distance Consumers for Swindon Outlet's Expansion?

The Long Shop which we soon be the new extension to the Swindon Outlet Centre, will it's stores be buzzing with international shoppers?

Swindon's Outlet Centre in the former GWR Rail Works workshops at Churchward, has since opening in 1997 become a vital part of retailing in the town.

The 50,000 square feet extension of the Outlet Centre into the empty Long Shop building next door (click here for pictures behind the doors of the Long Shop, that's frozen in time from 1986) will see £35 million invested, not just in the expansion, but also revamping the current centre.

With more visitors coming from overseas to buy highly-prized UK brands like Burberry and Paul Smith  at designer outlets, the Swindon Outlet Centre is well placed to reap huge rewards from foreign shoppers.

Plus as Swindon looks to attract businesses from the newly-dominate economies of China, India, Brazil and the rest, the retail offer we have will have to World-class too.

Swindon's Regeneration a Chance for Great Architecture & Design

Will Swindon's town centre regeneration lead to a new crop of landmark, award-winning buildings?

The Railway Village... Lydiard House... The Renault Building...The Motorola Building

All examples of important, nationally-recognised and in some cases, award-winning architecture, right in Swindon.

But in the last few years Swindon's perchance for landmark buildings has slowed somewhat.

With the town centre regeneration and the Swindon Masterplan, the will to push for new architecture and ideas in urban design is ready and waiting. Swindon could take a few risks in new designs and maybe see some more awards for it's built environment.

Swindon might not end up with dozens more landmark buildings, but the chance for high quality in urban design from the masterplan is a tantalising opportunity.

Swindon's Regeneration : Even The Queen Was Invited

Regeneration is inextricably linked to the past. If we ignore history we are doomed to repeat it, so goes the saying.

In a feature for Swindonweb (for the original piece, click here), I took a look back at the masterplan for Theatre Square...

The artist's impression of the view from Princes Street of the unbuilt Civic Hall. Copyright Swindon Collection.

You have to go all the way back to a rainy day in 1971 to pick apart the story of Swindon’s last major regeneration project in the town centre.

The confidence of the new plan for the Civic Centre development was so that the main phase to be completed, the Wyvern Theatre, was officially opened by Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Philip on 5th November 1971.In driving rain, the ceremony was conducted with the dignitaries sheltering under the pavilion in Theatre Square. If ever a symbol for the difficulties of a major regeneration project is needed, a downpour on opening day (Guy Fawkes Night indeed!) fits quite well. 

The scale model of the intended development, which included a new Central Library, which was eventually built. Copyright Swindon Collection.

The Civic Centre project first arrived in the vision of Swindon’s planners in 1965, with architects Casson, Condor and Partners being asked by the local authority to produce a detailed brief for the works. They presented a document and a proposed development that was very much in the thinking of the sixties, strict segregation of traffic and pedestrians, overwhelming use of reinforced concrete and steel to create large spaces and a multi-storey carpark. 

The project aimed to create a hub of all the council-provided facilities in one area. The location was key, between the Town Hall to the south, the main shopping district, Regent Street to the west and a new dual carriageway to the east (Princes Street) forming the main transport route as part of a new ring road.

The space that was to be occupied by the new Civic Hall was left vacant and still exists as the Wyvern Car Park. Copyright Swindon Collection.

The original plan called for a theatre (originally designated an arts centre), library, post office, shopping arcade and civic hall. The access to all these was by large pedestrianised spaces and links east towards Spring Gardens and west to Regent Street with walkways raised above the traffic and streets below.

Theatre Square was completed, with shops and cafes on the ground floor, and offices above. Unless you were around to see the building works, you might not know a network of underground corridors and sub-basements exists beneath Theatre Square. These act as emergency exits and most importantly link to a loading dock underneath the main doors of the Wyvern Theatre for deliveries by road.

The pride on display with the opening of the theatre could also be interpreted as relief, as for several years up to 1971, Swindon was without a professional theatre.The previous facility large enough to accommodate full-scale productions was the Empire Theatre on the corner of Groundwell Road and Clarence Street, now where La Dolce Vita restaurant is.The confidence of the grand opening was to be undermined in the following years as the plan for the Civic Hall was dropped as the money ran out. 

By the mid 1970s, attention on regeneration had moved to the Brunel shopping Centre, with its railway station-inspired architecture of vaulted trainshed roofs and brushed steel supports.The Civic Hall would have been on the land now occupied by the Princes Street carpark. On the same level as the Wyvern Theatre, the building would have contained two halls, the larger with a capacity of up to 2000 people and smaller for a maximum of 300. Both spaces would have been fully-serviced, with bars, kitchens, cloakrooms and offices, depending on whether a wedding reception, orchestra performance, or conference was taking place. The larger hall was specifically designed for the accommodation of an orchestra, but was adaptable, with a dancefloor able to be laid down if Swindon decided to put it's dancing shoes on! 

The Theatre Square and Wyvern Theatre were completed as expected in the initial plan. The Wyvern carpark would have extended across Regent Close and into Regent Place, with the elevated walkway carrying on to Regent Street. 

Swindon came tantalisingly close to a full regeneration project being designed, commissioned, constructed and completed, but that one piece of the jigsaw, the Civic Hall, was not to be. The library did still happen, but we had to wait until 2008 to browse its shelves.

Time to get it right....

With the demolition of the former Swindon College, groundworks on the massive Union Square project and contracts signed for the Oasis Leisure Centre rebuild and expansion, Swindon has a platter of regeneration to get its teeth into over the next decade.

Only time, the uncomfortable bedfellow of regeneration, will tell if they are finished with all the pieces we hope for - and these two boys below, perhaps, who sat and watched the demolition of the former College building this week, can look back and finally say....

"It took a while.... but they got it right."

To see more images from the Central Library's fascinating photo collection, visit the Swindon Collection's Flickr here.