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Prospect Place, SWINDON, SN1 3LJ

Showing position of Postbox No. SN1 44 and Postbox No. SN1 440.

Row of shops at the top of Victoria Road, a major artery linking the old and new towns in Swindon. Hickmans is a long established local electrical retailer, whilst to the right was once an ironmongers and DIY store known as Handys where one could buy anything from a candle to a cupboard door, and receive free advice over the counter. Now defunct due to the rise of the DIY superstore.

Bath Road, in Swindon's Old Town area, was at one time one of the most prestigious streets in the locality. But those days are long gone, and now it contains a motley collection of offices, a few shops, hostels, bed & breakfast establishments and large Victorian houses turned into apartments, as well as new developments. Even so, it is quite a shock to see an empty property in this street boarded up, as it awaits a new tenant. Years ago such a thing would have been unthinkable, and would probably have prompted a flurry of letters to the local paper!

The large brick-built office, dating from 1935. It stands on the site of older council offices.

Swindon is not noted for elegance, but this row of 19th century properties near the eastern end of Bath Road can be described as such with their clean lines and canopied doorways. In the sixties the firm of PJ Lord-Smith and partners were architects here and provided the photographer with his first job.

Outside the Post Office. Postbox No. SN1 44 and Postbox No. SN1 440.

The main building seen here was built in about 1830 and was occupied variously by doctors and corn merchants until 1930 when the then Swindon Corporation acquired it to be used as a museum, which it still is. Some time in the 1960s the rather unattractive annexe to the right was added with little thought, it seems to me, for the Georgian character of the main property. The annexe serves as an art gallery.

This fine house was built in 1830 and was originally occupied by well-off surgeons and coal merchants in its time. After the occupying family died out, the council bought it in 1928. Having established the town's museum collections in 1920, the town needed to find a much bigger home than the Victoria Hall they were kept in. Apsley House was the choice, and has maintained a large number of important exhibits here since. However, the ever-expanding displays are now looking to be moved to new premises in the town centre.

Situated in Victoria Road, this distinctly 1970s, mobile phone mast-strewn building has little relevance to Her Majesty.

The delightful Apsley House with its Greek Doric portico is now a museum. Built in the 1830s, the house and its gatepiers are listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1023456 Old Town, on its hill above the 'new' railway town, is the cultural heart of Swindon. The old and the new combined into a single town in 1900.