Give building to the community (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Give building to the community

YOUR SWINDON, YOUR VERDICT: ONE of Swindon's most impressive landmarks, the crumbling Mechanics' Institute should be given over for community use.

That is the result of the Evening Advertiser's Your Swindon Your Verdict survey, which asked readers what they thought should happen to the 150-year-old building.

Just over 60 per cent of readers said the building, which stands in the centre of Swindon's railway village should be used by the community while just over a third said that the building should be re-developed as a hotel, restaurant and business centre.

Currently, the huge building is owned by London businessman Mathew Singh who wants to re-develop it to become a business centre, hotel, restaurant along with several apartments.

The development of the business centre and a 100-seater restaurant along with apartments in the southern section of the building, which would be run by the Swindon Chamber of Commerce has already been given the go-ahead.

But the development of the northern end of the building which includes a glass tower for a hotel is now the subject of a public inquiry called by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister which should take place in September 2005.

Martha Parry of the New Mechanics' Institute Preservation Trust was not available for comment but has said previously: "We want the Mechanics' Institute to be a place where people can go and have a drink, read books or hold a conference - social things that people can do together.

"That was what it was originally built for after all."

The Mechanics' Institute was officially opened on May 1, 1855, and soon became a central part of the railway community.

The institute was built by the workers themselves - unlike St Mark's Church and the Medical Fund Hospital (now Central Community Centre), which were built by the Great Western Railway Company for the benefit of its employees.

It was way ahead of its time in many ways and it did much more than just cater for the educational needs of local people.

It included a library, which pre-dated England's first public library by several years as well as a reading room, coffee room and an upstairs theatre.

With its 36ft long dining room and collection of small shops it soon took on the role of a self-maintaining community centre. The idea of community centres was only developed many years later.

Built at a cost of £3,000 the building is now one of Swindon's most important historical sites.

Since the railway works closed in 1986 the massive building, which was extended over the years, has fallen into disrepair.

Since then, damp, floodwater, rot and vandalism have all taken their toll on the building.

Anthony Osborne