As a building, the Old Post Office Highworth, as pleasant as it is, is I daresay unremarkable. But the same isn’t true of erstwhile postmistress, Mabel Stranks. For she and her wartime exploits are the opposite of unremarkable.
Granville House Old Town – Swindon.
Often referred to as The White House this Grade II listed property deserves a place in Swindon in 50 More Buildings for more than one reason. And not least of which is that it’s a striking building on a generous plot with an actual stable block and coach house to its rear!
The Motorola Building Swindon opened in November 1998 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Striking and futuristic, the High-tech building did duty as a James Bond location.
The Great Western Hotel Swindon is a pub that’s undergone a number of incarnations as this history of the pub on the Arkell’s website tells us.
The Queen’s Tap Swindon is one of two pubs situated across the road from Swindon railway station. Once known as the Queen’s Hotel, the Queen’s Tap was the first of the two to have Swindonians leaning on the bar.
Even though I’m a regular user of Swindon railway station as I embark on my frequent Surrey schlep to the grandchildren I tend to forget half of Brunel’s original station remains. My memory on this point isn’t helped by the modern station frontage with Signal Point behind it. Surely the only redeeming feature of that building is the large, red Network Rail logo it bears.
As I pointed out in my piece about what’s left of Old Town’s Corn Exchange, I don’t intend to go overboard with long-gone buildings in this Swindon in 50 More Buildings series. Indeed, I hadn’t thought about covering the Garrard factory at all. But one of Royston Cartwright’s fab Facebook posts about the business prompted me to think I should include it. After all, Garrard was a hugely important industry for Swindon.
Sitting on Regent Circus, on the the opposite side to Rudi’s, and on the site of the forty-year-old ‘temporary’ library, lies Swindon central library. Designed council architects Nic Newland and Tony Currivan its 71, 405 bricks and 18, 415 roof tiles cost the princely sum of £10, 214, 930.00. Princess Anne performed the official opening of the library on 22nd May 2009.
One could well argue that creating a separate entry for The Cricketer’s Arms Pub constitutes a bit of a cheat, given that I covered the railway village as a whole in Swindon in 50 Buildings. But, given that, thanks to the work of the Mechanics’ Institution Trust it’s no longer rotting away, I felt it justified a special mention here.
Pavey’s Mill Wroughton is a welcome addition to this Swindon in 50 More Buildings series. That’s because, with my original Swindon in 50 Buildings book the brief didn’t allow me to cover any buildings in the wider borough.
STEAM museum Swindon. Otherwise known as STEAM – the museum of the Great Western Railway. It’s somewhat impossible to give Grade II listed building that houses this tourist tribute to God’s Wonderful Railway to one ex-Works building in particular. And that’s because it comprises a number of buildings.
These days a ubiquitous HMO, you’ll find what was the Ship Inn at 179 on the corner of Westcott Place, Birch Street, Park Lane and Faringdon Road, opposite the GWR park.
