Would You Get The Lights?

Swindon's skyline, with Union Square's Phase 1, photographed from the roof of the Jurys Inn at Whalebridge tonight.

Last Day at the (Registry) Office

Today I got the opportunity to look around Aspen House in Swindon's Temple Street. Empty since 2009 and scheduled for demolition soon, it was also the home for Swindon's Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

That means Aspen House has been one of the most important buildings in Swindon, registering every birth, marriage and death within the Borough during it's time.

One chair left, but no desk.

Still on the wall in the registry office.

The room where thousands of Swindon people got married.

The heavy door used to secure the strongroom containing the GRO Records (Swindon's Birth, Marriages and Deaths records).

The Civil Partnerships noticeboard.

The 2009 lists of the 100 most popular boys and girls names in England & Wales.

Details of the move to the Civic Offices.

From the roof, the Town Hall, Central Library and M.E.C.A.

From the roof, looking East/South-East.

From the roof looking North-East.

From the roof looking North.

From the roof down onto the registry office building and Temple Street.

From the roof looking North/North-West.

From the roof looking North-West.

From the roof looking North-West, showing the former WHSmith Bridge House, St Marks, the Outlet Centre, Renault Building, Westmead and Shaw Forest Park.

From the roof down to Granville Street Car Park and Havelock Street.

From the roof looking West.

From the roof looking South.

From the roof looking down to Commercial Road.

From the roof looking South-East towards the former Swindon College site. 

On the ground floor, the canteen.

Looking onto Regent Street from the Registrar's Office.

Swindon in the Sky

From the vantage point of the roof of the Signal Point building, Swindon's lights, shapes and streets all shine in the rush hour.

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.

Halloween

Some pictures from the archive of Halloweens past, complete with carved pumpkins and flickering candles.

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.