Erected in 1966-1967, this HQ turns out to be more important than one might imagine. HF Bailey (chief architect of WH Smith’s Estate Department) designed the buildings together with the consulting architects Johns, Slater & Haward. Johns, Slater & Haward, an important post-war architects’ practice.
Thus the Twentieth Century Society has joined Swindon’s Conservation Officer Liz Smith-Gibbons in objecting to plans to demolish the WH Smith warehouse, office block and carpark which it describes as of ‘outstanding national significance.’
The society have submitted the listing application in response to plans to redevelop the site into a large housing estate.
Two sites in one
The WHSmith site at Greenbridge is in fact two sites in one.
Firstly the Swindon Distribution Centre is one of three hubs in England, supplying their over 600 stores and online customers. So, if we’re going to get proper about it, it’s not a warehouse. That’s because it’s part of a wider supply chain. And their UK Support Centre – based in the tower block is home to the High Street trading teams and also forms the base for their Group head office.
Architectural Interest
It appears that the significant architectural interest lies the influence of the Silberkuhl system in the design. That being the brainchild of the German engineer Wilhelm J Silbkuhl (1912-1984). The arched roof comprises three 150 ft wide and 525 ft long curved spans of steel truss girders and reinforced concrete roofing supported on twelve columns. This provided 250,000 sq ft of unobstructed floor space.
The complex also included a six-storey office building.Its design intended to hold administration areas as well as restaurants, welfare and recreation rooms. Not forgetting service equipment areas and an air-conditioned, double-glazed computer and data processing rooms. Further: ‘The office is steel-framed and when built, the exterior was clad in exposed aggregate panels that matched those on the warehouse. Bands of cladding alternate with windows. An off-centre tower counterbalances their horizontal lines.
So now you know!
Greenbridge served also as the location of a number of other industrial buildings designed and constructed by leading architectural practices. These included a small Reliance factory by Team Four (1966-7) and the Torrington Factory by Marcel Breuer & Robert F Gtaje (1966-7).
Pevsner describes the WH Smith warehouse as the “most striking building” on the estate.
The ISBN story
Legend has it that, in 1966, WH Smith created a particular standard book number. This number consisted of a nine-digit code, adopted in 1970 as the international standard number. And that, at length, that become the International Standard Book Number – ISBN – in 1974.
The creation of the ISBN system is attributed to WH Smith’s relocation to Greenbridge. Thus adding historic significance to the site.
But …. the plot thickens … according to someone I know that once worked there, that story is a tad apocryphal. In that WH Smith were using an SBN system as early as 1964 – three years before this building opened. That system became the ISBN system in 1974.
But here’s a nice little factoid for you: the Greenbridge building saw the processing of the first ever UK Internet sale. The order may not have been placed there but certainly the servers in the building recorded it. It’s thought that the order in question was for a copy of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth!
WHSmith PLC (also known as WHS or colloquially as Smith’s, and formerly W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer headquartered, as we know, in Swindon.
Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna formed the company in 1792 as a London news vendor. The business remained under Smith family ownership for many years. It saw a large-scale expansion during the 1970s and can lay claim to being the world’s first retail chain.
A rather funky public art piece once stood outside the WH Smith offices called Kinetic Pencils, by Peter Logan – installed in 1991. Sadly they’re long gone but below, for your delectation and edification, are some wonderful archive photos of the kinetic pencils from Richard Wintle.
And now a small number showing construction of the part of this distribution centre that is gone already – referred to by some ex-employees as the peppermint palace:
Swindonians called upon to help lead the fight-back against social media stereotypes of ageing
Fighting social media stereotypes of ageing Members of the public from Swindon and Wiltshire are being asked to post their own photos of everyday life. Why? To help challenge negative stereotypes of ageing and biased social media algorithms. All as part of the town’s online Festival of Tomorrow.
The initiative marks the launch of an on-going research project between: The Centre for Digital Citizens * UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and … * … Swindon’s Festival of Tomorrow.
Aims of the project – Fighting social media stereotypes of ageing
The project aims to gather data to: *Help explore the concept of ‘Ageless Citizen’ and … * … the relationship between technology and bias/stereotypes around age.
Search engines and stock photo libraries often use positive or negative depictions of people in later life. And these images bear no resemblance to reality.
These images help to spread and perpetuate harmful stereotypes of ageing and older age. The reality is that digital technologies often replicate and magnify existing prejudices and biases within society. It’s called: ‘algorithmic bias’.
Image courtesy of Centre for Ageing Better, under CC0 licence to Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0
Brain child
The project is the brain-child of a group of researchers from the Centre for Digital Citizens based at Newcastle University and Northumbria University. Dan Lambton-Howard, researcher at Open Lab, Newcastle University said: ‘We want to challenge algorithmic biases to create a more diverse and authentic representation of ageing and later life. That way we can fight back against the algorithms!
We want people from Swindon and Wiltshire to help us fight back against search-engine bias and stereotypes of ageing. And we want them to do it by creating and sharing more realistic images of growing up and growing older on social media!”
Rod Hebden, Director of the Festival of Tomorrow said “No-one likes misrepresentation. So we want as many people as possible to take part in the project. They can do by sharing a photo of growing up or growing older that fits one of the following titles:
This is my everyday
Don’t underestimate me
A shared passion
Send us your photos by posting them on social media with #FestivalOfTomorrow.
To help search engines understand your image we also want you to tag your image with three words that best describe it.”
FOT Facebook image
The Festival of Tomorrow
Visitors to the free online Festival of Tomorrow on the 19 and 20 February will be able find out more about the project. They’ll also enjoy a varied programme of talks and shows. Further, a virtual planetarium and exploring an amazing range of exhibitors showcase the latest science and research. That ranges from the future of space travel to the UK’s leading role in the fight against coronavirus.
Indeed, as they go on to tell us, the Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor of Lydiard as having woodland of 1 league long and a half a league in breadth. Come the 13th century and Braydon had become the second largest forest providing timber trees in the whole of England. Further, it abounded with red and fallow deer. In 1254-56 King Henry III gave Lydiard’s owner, Robert Tregoze, forty-four deer from the Royal Forest of Braydon to restock the park at Lydiard.
Now follows a post from my occasional guest blogger, Rebecca Davies BSC. (Hons) about Braydon Forest – and about forestry in general.
I am a true Purtonian, and so have made a light study of the local history. Some of my knowledge, though, isn’t so much overtly learned as comes more from immersion.
Part of that is about the forested land below Pavenhill in Purton. This forest land is Braydon (or Bradon) Forest – a one-time royal hunting ground. This much I learned as a child. Yet no-one could tell me much about the place. There is a booklet published on the forest, by Thomson in 1953. It is 30 pages long and is about the only dedicated history of this area. Thus I am hoping this little article will make a difference.
Braydon pond
Forest Law
FOREST: Hunting preserve of the king or lord-marcher, subject to forest law but not necessarily woodland. Originally an area of land in which only the owner had the right to hunt deer and boar. Special laws were applied in this area as it lay outside the jurisdiction of common law. (Forests and Chases glossary)
Every schoolboy is taught that forests existed to provide deer and other game for the king’s hunting. And that all Plantagenet kings rode to hounds, like Jorrocks, four days a week, and the royal keepers roamed the land inflicting capital and surgical penalties on any peasant caught doing anything that might, however remotely, interfere with the deer. This idealistic picture has never been confirmed by critical research. (Rackham)
The animals preserved included Red deer, Fallow deer, Roe deer and Wild boar. Fallow Deer are not natives. The Normans introduced them from southern Europe.
Child with fallow deer – US postcard circa 1970
fallow deer antler
Organisation of The Forest
Political
· Warden/Chief Forester. Often an eminent magnate, a deputy often exercised his powers. · Foresters, under-foresters. They went about preserving the forest and game and apprehending offenders against the law. · Woodwards, Rangers. Woodwards is a common place name in the forest. · Agisters – supervised pannage and agistment · Surveyors – determined the boundaries of the forest.
Forest courts
Court of attachment, (Forty-Day Court or Woodmote). Presided over by verderers and the Warden, or his deputy. It did not possess the power to try or convict individuals, and such cases passed to the swainmote
Court of regard, held every third year to enforce the law requiring declawing of dogs within the forest.
Swainmote or Sweinmote – held three times a year and presided over by the Warden and verderers.
·Court of justice-seat or eyre was the highest of the forest courts. It was the only court that could pass sentence upon offenders of the forest laws.
In practice, these fine distinctions were not always observed.
Rights and privileges
Payment for access to certain rights provided a useful source of income to the King. The common inhabitants of the forest possessed many rights:
Turbary, the right to cut turf, rights of pasturage
Wood pasture (Agistment)- the practise of grazing livestock in mixed grassland and woods.
Swine forage (Pannage) – both beech and oak trees give nourishing seeds for pigs.
Warren – rabbit warrens, managed by the warrener …
… and harvesting the products of the forest.
Lastly, land might be disafforested entirely. That else permission could be given for assart (small clearance) and purpresture. (Building)
Environment
The geology is Oxford clay, a stiff clay – not easy to plough. Forests did not get established on useful land. The topography has a gentle roll with a few streams going through it, often forming borders. The main stream is the River Key.
Industrial and Social History
Industry
In modern day forestry reports there is little discussion of economic activity. Indeed, we might say that forests arewastelands, as per the medieval definition – in that they created no income for the Crown.
In times past the people, whether king or inhabitants, could not afford the luxury of unproductive land. In fact for many forest people their immediate environment supplied all their needs. Probably, apart from grain and metals, the only products imported were luxury goods.
*Fuel wood *Timber – building materials *Wood – coppiced wood & small crafts *Charcoal *Herbs *Wild honey/wax *Fungi and truffles *Nuts & fruits *Stone and clay
Wood management
In Coppicing, the trees get cut back to regrow into poles. Then, from time to time, recut. It’s possible to treat most deciduous trees this way. The practice produces small pieces of timber for a variety of uses. Such as:
Firewood
Pea and beansticks
Wattle fencing
Posts
Charcoal
Wood turning
Small woodwork
We see this practice in Ravenshurst Wood.
5-year-coppice
2-year-coppice
new cut coppice
Social History
Forests were places outside common law and the inhabitants were likewise unconventional, often described as non-confirmist or even atheists. Most royal forests were extra-parochial and had no church. The first built in Braydon forest came at the end of the nineteenth century.
The royal forests attracted the Romanies for their resource rich environments with little outside interference. There’s irony in the fact that land established for the elite had the side-effect of creating a desireable abode for the marginalised.
Perambulations
Thomson gives a lot of his book over to the perambulations. This is an official record of a boundary – all done without the use of a map. This is an official record of a boundary – all done without the use of a map. The perambulation is followed on the ground and marked by describing landmarks, such as distinctive trees, earthworks or natural features such as ridgelines or streams.
Thomson’s braydon forest map
In conclusion
As Rackham says, the royal forests, though of importance to the owners and inhabitants, have been little recorded or documented. We have no idea how many there were in total or for how long they were afforested. Nor where the borders were.
The Great Forest of Braydon – view from Pavenhill in Purton
Braydon is not a big forest with distinct laws and culture. It is not a small, famous forest. However, it is my forest.
** All photos by the author, except the fallow deer photo. And the map is from Thomson’s booklet.
Christ Church Cottages / Anderson’s Hostel – 27-30 Cricklade Road
Anderson’s Almshouses Old Town Now known as Anderson’s hostel, Anderson’s almshouses in Old Town – on Cricklade Street to be precise – were built thanks to a bequest by one Alexander Anderson in 1865. He made his bequest of £1, 636 for the benefit of the poor.
Born in Scotland in 1808, Alexander Anderson died a Swindonian in 1874, leaving a bequest to build almshouses right by the Christ Church graveyard.
The architect was William Henry Read of Swindon and the builder, Thomas Barrett of Newport Street. They demolished some ancient thatched cottages on the site to make way for their project.
The gothic style
The houses comprise four bays – single storey and attic in the first instance. In Gothic style they have braced decorative bargeboards on the gables. There’s an inset plaque on Cricklade Street detailing the bequest.
Anderson’s Almshouses Old Town – plaque on cricklade street
Each of the four houses comprised a living room and pantry on the ground floor with a bedroom above. The commemorative plaque on the houses bears the date 1877.
To be eligible to apply for accommodation in the houses you had to be either a single or married woman, aged over 60 and resident in Swindon over three years. You also couldn’t be in receipt of poor relief. Those running the houses gave preference to those ‘reduced by misfortune from better circumstances.’
The residents of houses No 1 and No 2 received small weekly pensions from John Chandler, a Wood Street draper. Then, in 1897, one gave £100 to provide a pension for the inmate of No 3.
Anderson’s Hostel
By 1906, Anderson’s institution had become known as a “Hostel“. In in that year, Swindon’s charities became united under a Scheme of the Charity Commissioners.
By 1903 all four residents were women. In 1962 the charities had an annual income of £110 and only residents in the ancient parish of Swindon could benefit.
On the list
The British Listed Building’s website gives the following information about the listing for Anderson’s Hostel in Swindon:
Listing date: 17th February 1970 Grade II Source ID: 1283745 English Heritage Legacy ID: 318721
1993 saw internal remodelling of the almshouses into self-contained flats for the elderly winning a Thamesdown Borough Council’s Conservation and Design Award. If you zoom in on the image above of the stone plaque you can see a smaller blue/white plaque in the top left corner denoting this award.
‘In the glum, economically testing times of the early Seventies it seemed like a dream. A ray of extravagant, faraway sunshine that had contrived to pierce a doom-clouded era of strikes, the oil crisis and a three-day week to illuminate an unlikely corner of North Wiltshire.’ He goes on to describe how the bulbous, £170,000, see-through glazed centrepiece of the three-storey play Mecca came from the USA – was lauded as ‘the biggest leisure dome in Europe.’
Symbiotic relationship
All elements of the Oasis combined to meet the description of a fertile spot in a desert where you find water. The desert part being the urban sprawl in which it sits.
So, the much-loved dome let sunshine stream in and blue skies canopy bathers, giving them a sense of being outside. And all this decades before Center Parcs came our way.
Aside from the dome itself, what made the eponymous leisure pool so famous and so worthy of its name was the carefully planned, tropical themed interior – right down to real banana plants and the Ken White mural you see below, It all combined to create a totally tropical paradise experience.
The other factor making this pool special is its accessibility. The Oasis is not only the only leisure/fun pool for MILES – the nearest being Bracknell – it’s also the only fully accessible facility for children and those with mobility issues. Its lagoon shape, that you can simply walk into as you’d walk into the sea itself, is perfect for families and the less mobile. There is nothing else like it in Swindon – or for miles around.
Award winning
In 1976 the American National Swimming Pool Institute awarded the Oasis an Oscar of the swimming pool world. They bestowed a gold medal on it and hailed it as the world’s top residential pool of 1976! Wow!
What’s more, following the later addition of the domebuster water chutes (I burst my eardrum on those – never been right since) the Oasis became, for a while, Wiltshire’s biggest attraction! Yep – as Barry Leighton exclaimed: Bigger than Stonehenge!
Key Architectural Facts:
Structural System, space frame Architect, F Gillinson Barnett & Partners Year of construction, 1975
Those dry details to one side, it’s rumoured that one Noel Gallagher took inspiration from our Oasis for his … The story goes as follows: Back in 1991, Noel Gallagher visited Swindon while working as a roadie for an indie band, Inspiral Carpets. Brother Liam, along for the gig, found himself drawn to the name Oasis as a new name for their band then called The Rain. Though not at once enamoured with the idea, Noel came round and Oasis they became. At length. Thus, as this piece from The Guardian states, Swindon’s Oasis pleasure dome earned a footnote in pop history – circa 1991.
The last of a typology
Architect Robert Guy tells how the Oasis is one of the last remaining leisure pools designed by Gillinson Barnet & Partners of Leeds. Further it’s the last remaining example of a leisure pool from the 70s- all others have been demolished or much changed.
*It also happens to be the best example that embodies the aims of the originators and is unique in its form.
Guy himself visited the Oasis in 1978 as an undergraduate. A visit that set him off on his own career in leisure architecture. He went on to design Coral Reef at Bracknell.
Mr Guy tells too of how the dome is a feature of the design and forerunner of buildings such as The Great Glass House at the National Botanical Garden of Wales in Carmarthenshire, Wales by Foster Associates. And that It also fits into a much larger context of historic domed buildings including the Leeds Corn Exchange, The Devonshire Dome, now at the University of Derby at Buxton and the Royal Albert Hall.
* If this building is not retained then the whole building type will have disappeared. Demolishing the Oasis will be akin to killing the last butterfly.
Okay – so that’s a bit of exaggeration. But it WILL be cultural vandalism.
‘ …. The Oasis is the most innovative of 20th-century public structures offered in the town AND county. The dome part of the building was the 3rd of its kind built in the UK and at the time was the largest dome in Europe.
The design screams the influence of Pierre Luigi Nervi’s iconic Palazzetto Dello Sport.
Regardless of architectural significance, the leisure centre’s cultural significance is big.
It represents everything about this period in Britain, at a time when Swindon was a key player in providing overspill space for London. These new-town communities were attractive prospects for new families. In 1974, the build of the Oasis was slap-bang between the 50s/ 60s expansion to the east of the town and the 70s/80s expansion to the west.
The Oasis provided exciting leisure facilities for a rapidly growing audience made up of families, where many enjoyed a tropical paradise within an industrial urban town … ‘
Somewhat related to all that is this piece on the blog:
For sure it’s an iconic building and one that I wanted to put into Swindon in 50 Buildings but couldn’t find the room for it. Thus it had an assured place in this blog series. It’s second only to the David Murray John Toweras saying ‘Swindon’.
Like so many buildings in Swindon a Ken White mural of a desert theme once graced it. That ended up being painted over when tanking works to protect the concrete from humidity took place.
Ken White taken by Richard Wintle of Calyx MediaThe Oasis dome shining in the sun – photo by We Are Swindon
‘ … It is the last major work of architectural partnership of Gillinson Barnett and Partners (GBP), where Peter Sargent and Clifford Barnett were senior partners, the pre-eminent designers of leisure centres during this period.
At Swindon a large free form pool was enclosed by a 45-metre dome (the largest of its type in Europe) composed of an aluminium frame with transparent PVC panels.
The RIBA Guides to Modern Architecture described it as a ‘fantasy structure, its half-submerged dome resembling a flying-saucer.’
The Oasis is separated into a ‘wet side’, containing leisure pools and extensive waterslides, and ‘dry side’ for sports and recreation activities, the two being connected by the changing rooms, entrance hall and restaurant.’
