Swindon ‘Mechanics’ is inching forward - while Borough drags its feet
More than 70 interested parties attended a meeting entitled ‘Moving the Mechanics’ Forward’ at the former GWR Staff Association hospital, on March 8. Mechanics’ Trust Chairman Daniel Rose presented an overview of the trust’s work, which comprises the management of the World Heritage Site Railway Village, including its three Brunelian pubs, the former GWR museum building, the railway cottage museum and even the public park. It is hoped to re-open the railway cottage later this year, but owing to its limited capacity, some days will be open to public and others for pre-arranged school parties. Two of the pubs are currently unoccupied, but there are plans to open one as a café, while the other needs extensive renovation and may become a B&B. The trust manages a number of properties, including the Health Hydro, with its swimming pools and Turkish baths, and The Platform, the former workers’ barracks. It is also seeking a use for the Carriage Works, the original stone frontage of the works adjacent to the Tunnel, on London Street. It is hoped that the Swindon Museum & Art Gallery could be accommodated there, rather than in a proposed new building. More than half of the meeting was taken up with these other buildings, rather than the potential jewel in the village’s crown, the Mechanics’ Institution itself. This Grade II*-listed building has languished neglected and derelict for 30 years. Sold by BR into private hands, it is now under the jurisdiction of the Crown Estates. The trust circulated revised plans for the structure, which eliminate the proposed small shops and the buffet car shown to me a year ago, and include a much larger restaurant and open circulating area amid the forums, theatre and independent cinema. The scheme has been received enthusiastically by the Heritage Lottery Fund, but a letter of support from Swindon Borough Council is required, and this has not been forthcoming. The meeting resolved to press for an urgent response from the Borough but it is now too late for this year’s funding round, so the ‘Mechanics’ continues to languish in uncertainty and The Railway Village has, at its heart, a derelict eyesore rather than the jewel that it could be.