From the archives - The old Regent Circus College

This week 5 years ago, the view inside the old Swindon College building at Regent Circus.

Swindon's Regeneration : Last Year at Regent Circus.

It's a year ago this week that demolition work finished at the old Swindon College site at Regent Circus. Here's a selection of images, some not seen before, of the demolition from inside and out.

The main entrance onto the Regent Circus Car Park

Through the dust of demolition, the David Murray John building hovers in the background.

Building R4, or better known as the Victorian Technical College building.

The next generation takes a closer look.

The tiles of the kitchen are the last thing to be demolished.

The view from the rooftop. 

Demolition starts on the workshops at the back of Edmund Street.

Classrooms on the 4th level.

The final week's timetable for room 4.9.

A flyer for Soda nightclub on the 4th Level. Did you go that November night?

The quiet study area in the ground floor library.

The library.

The careers office.

Demolition starts on the main tower.

A piece of the main tower's flat room comes down.

The remains of the careers office amid the rubble of the main block.

The site manager makes one final walk across Regent Circus in the last week of work.

Swindon's Regeneration : The People Under The Hard Hats

Wring Group site manager Steve surveys the scene on the last day of demolition work on the former Swindon College Regent Circus site.

Planners, designers, architects, consultants, councillors, engineers and more. The list of people who are involved in urban regeneration can easily stretch to Christmas-list proportions.

But what about the contractors themselves? They're the people who go onto cold, windswept sites at all hours, on the front-line for criticism from anyone, site neighbours, motorists, passersby, it's a job few people would envy.

The one person who's been responsible for the old Swindon College demolition from beginning to today's end is Site Manager Steve from Wring Group. On the nearly thirty site visits fellow photographer Ed Howell and I have made, from the security of the site to the careful asbestos removal, to the weather hampering the work to equipment problems, we've seen a hell of a lot.

Just a few days after major demolitions works began in May, the view from Edmund Street.

So in the long story of Swindon's town centre regeneration, those people like Steve should be recognised for their dedication and professionalism.

Swindon's Regeneration : Thank You & Good Night

The final job on the demolition works at the old Swindon College site in Regents Circus

The very last part of demolition works at the old Swindon College site this lunchtime, with crushing of a small area of tarmac from the car park.

Swindon's Regeneration : Demolition Done

The hulking 1960s block of the old Swindon College was still with us in July.

This week marks a significant stage in one of Swindon's regeneration projects. All the demolition work on the old Swindon College site at Regent Circus should be finished by the end of this week.

Considering how long it's taken for work to start, when it did, it's taken hardly any time.

The Vincents restaurant, which will be the site of the Morrisons supermarket in just over a year.

Located above Vincents restaurant was the auditorium with it's stage and dressing rooms, this the female dressing room with a script left on the counter.

A demolition few people believed would happen until they saw it with their own eyes. The roof being ripped off the main tower.

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 : The Empty College And The Lost Artist of Swindon College

Here's the booty I salvaged from a small empty office in the old Swindon College demolition back in May. Previously hanging on the wall, it was propped up behind the door against the wall, either from falling off, or maybe someone else had spotted it and was preparing to take it to another home?  

My question is, who painted it and who was it who liked it enough to have it framed and displayed on the wall?

Swindon's Regeneration : The Lost Treasures of Swindon

The science, mathematics and technology-themed artwork.

Sitting quietly amongst the wreckage of the old Swindon College, unnoticed, undamaged, were a few pieces of treasure. 

As briefly blogged about back in May, the stairwells of the main building had a piece of artwork on each half-landing. I don't know how long they'd been there, but I remember passing them on the stairs in 1999.

The music-based artwork can just be seen at the top of the stairs.

Sitting on pieces of plyboard, around 5 feet in height, the majority were in the main stairwell of the main block. A large landscape of Swindon was especially striking, with another being a collage of mathematic equations, chemistry symbols and scientific drawings.

Another was music-based, with musical notes on sheet music and portraits.

Does anyone remember the artwork?

I had intended to try and save them and possibly find a home for the pieces, but they were taken down in the stripping-out of the college.

However, all was not lost.

One piece, an abstract work created by a student was deemed good enough for a staff member to have it on the wall in an office on the 3rd floor. While on a site visit, I carefully carried it across the glass walkway between the main block and tower and edged down the crumbling stairs, passed the pieces that were not to be saved. In a large clip-frame, I carried it through town and took it home. 

It sits safe and saved. An often-asked question is, what would you save in a fire? What single, or handful of items would you drag out to safety. 

Maybe the question for some should be, what will you save from the regeneration? On demolition and construction sites workers often have the pick of items left behind or the few highlights poking from a skip due to go nowhere but landfill. 

The landscape artwork.

So amongst the faceless and everyday pieces of administration stuck behind empty filing cabinets and yellowing memos pined to noticeboards, the kings of these forgotten artefacts hung proudly on the walls, giving flashes of colour, creativity and the legacy of the college that will long outlive these pieces we lost in the rubble.

Swindon's Regeneration : Now and Soon

We're nearly at the end of the demolition phase at Regent Circus, making now a good time to show what will be occupying the space soon. Developer Ashfield Land has produced an online brochure, with a detailed floor plan for the new development, click this link and scroll to the bottom of the page to download the plan. 

Here's some of the artist's impressions, with best matches from the pictures I've been taking, helping to give a visual reference point for each image.

This picture is slightly too far to the left, with the matching point for this view across Regent Circus being at the crossing point in the lower right of the photograph.

An artist's impression of the Regent Circus development, viewed from the crossing at the corner next to the Central Library.

The crossing points and roadways become what's called 'shared space' where roads and paths are not distinctly defined, heightening drivers and pedestrians attention. The building will only be around half the height of the tall college tower.

Taken from Western Street, looking down towards the corner of Rolleston and Edmund Streets.

The same viewpoint, showing the tallest block as the cinema, with the spiral allowing access between floors on the  450 space car park.

The road layout remains the same, with an entrance to the multi-storey car park and pedestrian entrance to the main development at the corner of Rolleston and Edmund Streets.

On the corner of Rolleston and Edmund Streets.

On the corner, at 45 degrees to the above photograph, the corner of the Cineworld building should be in line with the nearest wall of the single-storey workshops. One of three entrances to the car park will be on this corner, along with one of the main pedestrian entrances.

Immediately behind the white gates, looking directly towards Regent Circus.

Along the same line, the main pedestrian street of restaurants will link the back of Edmund Street and the main pedestrian and meeting place on the edge of Regent Circus, seen in the distance where the round tower is.

I hope this gives you a better idea of what the finished Regent Circus development will look like.

Swindon's Regeneration : Back Down To Earth

A cleared canvas at Regent Circus.

The above picture is a photograph of, space. Not a building, or a person, but a large area of fresh air. Far off in the distance you can see the houses of Eastcott Hill. Yesterday, the final ground floor sections of wall were crumbled away by the Wring Group's machines and the former Swindon College 'modern' extension was no more.

All that remain are 20,000 tonnes, or thereabouts of material, metal, concrete, wood and glass to be sorted, reduced to transportable size, boxed up and moved for reuse. That should take a few weeks, then building work can start in October.

The small pile of debris in the centre right and the collection of metal to the far left are the last pieces of the main tower that were pulled down yesterday.

What also remains on site are the memories of classes, teachers, students, exams, assemblies, gigs, plays, meetings and much, much more. 

Swindon's Regeneration : A Change In The Air

A brooding sky, quiet street and birds circling overhead, give an unsettling feeling on Monday lunchtime.

Demolition sites can be fascinating places, allowing people to act like children and watch big machines crush buildings to dust. But give a change in the weather, a break in work and an absence of people and they can take on a sinister air.

The only sound alongside the breeze was the gentle hiss of the water spray.

With a moody sky, the hulking pile (for it's no longer a tower) of debris where the central tower once stood threw-out odd shapes against the sky. In Edmund Street, the breeze coming down Eastcott Hill rocked the access gates back and forth, squeaking and clattering on it's hinges. Behind the hoarding, the spray was left on, like a leaky steam pipe in a ship's empty boiler room. Small areas of dust would blow around the yard, bouncing off the walls.

On the hill, tables at The Beehive, overlooking the demolition were vacant, and streets were quiet, sitting in a purgatory. The neighbourhood seemed to know it was at a crossing point of eras, with time for the remaining one crumbling away like so much concrete dust.

Swindon's Regeneration : The Tower's Last Stand

Rest awhile and watch the demolition.

A new sport, non-Olympic based it has to be said, has been to sit for a short or long while depending on your day, and observe the regeneration of Swindon's Regent Circus. On benches at the bottom of the hill and mid-way up by The Beehive pub people sit quietly and watch the crumbling of the former college building.

The wafer-thin looking roof is quickly broken off and consigned to the scrap wood piles on the ground.

Whilst onsite on Friday we captured the roof being nibbled away at and come crashing down.

Anybody for some very last-minute careers advice in the library?

The last few pieces of the Learning Resource Centre in the rubble of the library can be seen brightly clinging to the wall.

In a matter of days, it'll all be gone.

Swindon's Regeneration : The Final Piece

The tower of the former Swindon College is marooned amongst the piles of metal, glass, plastic and concrete as the demolition enters it's last few stages. This was the 10 storey tower that stood between the long rectangular block towards Victoria Road and the reception and hall at the Eastcott Hill end of the site. It's taken on the look of an oriental pagoda, helped by the one piece of sloping roof still clinging on.

The wall that's kept Eastcott Hill hidden from view for so long, is nearly all down.