Swindon Civic Offices is a 1938 municipal building in Euclid Street in

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

, England. The building is

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

, and is home to the offices and meeting place of

Swindon Borough Council Swindon Borough Council is the local authority of the Borough of Swindon in the ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England. It was founded in 1974 as Thamesdown Borough Council, and was a lower-tier district council until 1997. In 1997 it was re ...

and the Swindon Museum & Art Gallery.

History

The building was commissioned to replace Swindon Town Hall at Regent Circus which was no longer adequate to accommodate the needs of the Swindon Corporation. The site the corporation selected was a former recreation ground belonging to the Clarence Street School. Following a design competition involving 67 firms of architects, Bertram, Bertram and Rice were selected as the preferred bidder. The new building was designed in the Moderne style, built in red brick and was officially opened by

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (Henry William Frederick Albert; 31 March 1900 – 10 June 1974) was a member of the British royal family. He was the third son of King George V and Mary of Teck, Queen Mary, and was a younger brother of kings E ...

on 5 July 1938. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of 29 bays facing onto Euclid Street. The building was laid out with a two-storey central section of five bays, which was slightly projected forward, a pair of two-storey wings of nine bays each, and a pair of single-storey end sections of three bays each. The middle three bays of the central section, which were even further projected forward, featured a short flight of steps leading up to a square-headed doorway, with a stone surround and a keystone, which was flanked by two small

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s. There were three casement windows with stone surroundings and a

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

on the first floor. The windows in the outer bays of the central section also had stone surrounds, but the rest of the building was fenestrated with plain casement windows. Internally, the rates office was in one wing, while the offices for the town clerk and the mayor were in the other wing. The council chamber, the mayor's chamber, and the principal committee room were in the central section. As the responsibilities of the council increased, a new office building was erected to the north of the civic offices, facing on Beckhampton Street, in 1965. The civic offices continued to serve as the headquarters of the corporation and remained the meeting place for the enlarged Thamesdown Borough Council when it was formed in 1974. After the Clarence Street School closed in the 1980s, that building was annexed to provide extra accommodation for council staff. Further accommodation became available when Wat Tyler House was erected to the northwest of the civic offices, facing on Beckhampton Street, in 1988. A

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

plaque, to commemorate the lives of the leaders of the

Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...

Wat Tyler Wat Tyler (1341 or – 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in Kingdom of England, England. He led a group of rebels from Canterbury to City of London, London to oppose the collection of a Tax per head, poll tax and to dem ...

and John Ball, was installed in Beckhampton Street in 1990. The council became Swindon Borough Council when it took on new responsibilities as the

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

for the area in 1997. Following the closure of its former home at

Apsley House Apsley House is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington. It stands alone at Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing towards the large traffic roundabout in the centre of which stands the Wellington Arch. It ...

in Old Town, Museum & Art Swindon relocated to the first floor of the Civic Offices in 2024.

References

{{Reflist Buildings and structures in Swindon City and town halls in Wiltshire Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire Grade II listed government buildings Government buildings completed in 1938