Save Oasis Campaign Seeks Sustainable Solutions
Not letting themselves become clouded by sentimentality, the Save the Oasis campaign group have set themselves the task of seeking sustainable solutions. Of course they want the dome preserving – but they have full understanding that to keep it, it must function better than it ever has.
Iconic Swindon Structures
Controversy ranges in Swindon as I bash out this blog, around the Oasis Pleasure Dome. A term bandied about around this leisure centre is ‘iconic’. Thus I thought I’d have a look at the term – what it means – and what it means to Swindon.
Dear Cllr Renard
Before I start I wish to clarify that when I use the terms YOU/YOUR etc I’m not necessarily referring to you personally but am using ‘you’ as a metonymy for the body you represent. I trust you’ll appreciate the difference where it’s applicable.
Save Swindon’s Oasis Dome
Back in January I wrote this post, in my Swindon in 50 More Buildings series, about the Oasis in Swindon. In that I gave mention of the Save the Swindon Oasis campaign. If you’re a Facebook user you’ll find them here: https://www.facebook.com/saveoasis
I very nearly put the nunnery on Milton Road in Swindon in 50 Buildings but didn’t. So, despite the fact that’s not too much to tell, I have to include it in this Swindon in 50 More Buildings series, because it’s unique in Swindon. There is no other nunnery – or ex-nunnery – in the town. Unless someone can tell me otherwise.
W G Little Milliner and Draper
Born in Chippenham to a Scots family, William Graham Little arrived in Swindon in 1874.
For this post in the Swindon in 50 More Buildings series I’m keeping with the Stratton area. The previous post covered Upper Stratton Baptist Church – and in this one Lower Stratton Methodist Church. So one way and another I’ve got Methodism north of the railway well-covered!
With this Swindon in 50 More Buildings series my quest to include different areas of town continues, as it did in my Swindon in 50 Buildings book. What I can also do with this series, that I couldn’t with the book, is look at some buildings in the wider borough. But for now, with this post, I’m in Upper Stratton with the Upper Stratton Baptist Church.
I’d had no particular thought about including the WH Smith offices in this series. But then, as is so often the way, I saw something on Twitter that piqued my interest and persuaded me that I should. What I saw was this article from the 20th century society about getting the building – what’s left of it – listed.
Now known as Anderson’s hostel, Anderson’s alms houses 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.
For No 10 in my series on Swindon in 50 More Buildings we’re paying a visit to the Oasis Pleasure Dome. Have you got your towel under your arm?
The other week my regular guest blogger, Rebecca Davies, sent me a delightful and charming account of an older couple she once visited in Ferndale. It’s a lovely story and it’s further down in this post. But as her story is set in Ferndale I figured I could tie it in with a Swindon in 50 More Buildings post centred on the Southbrook Inn Swindon. Which happens to be in Ferndale.
