Swindon shopping centre
A new lease of life for Swindon’s retail
Forward Swindon plays a major role in making Swindon’s town centre a vibrant environment that attracts visitors, draws businesses and creates employment. Our Canal Walk and Regent Street projects have regenerated major areas of Swindon’s shopping centre, creating settings that delight and inspire in equal measures.
Transforming Canal Walk
Running from Wharf Green to Jubilee Square, Canal Walk has benefited from many major improvements:
- Green walls cover the south side of the connecting bridge between Brunel Plaza and the Brunel Arcade, and the north side of the vehicle bridge. Fed by rainwater, these living, planted structures are lush, colourful tapestries that also provide sound-absorption and carbon-reduction benefits. The green walls are one of the first installations of their kind to be established in a UK town centre.
- A striking water feature has replaced Canal Walk’s Jubilee Clock, which will have a new home at the Swindon Station Forecourt. The feature comprises two lighted water walls of bonded and bolted stainless steel, where water weirs travel down the sculpture, clinging and falling randomly.
- Water-droplet shaped raised paving and LED strip lights change colour in different weather conditions, reinforcing Canal Walk’s ‘green’ and ‘ribbon’ themes.
Enhancing Regent Street
Regent Street is now home to an exciting identity that attracts shoppers and encourages stores to establish their businesses in Swindon. Our regeneration project has:
- improved Swindon’s economic sustainability by revitalising the area and encouraging inward investment
- created a better shopping destination by enhancing the pedestrian streets
- provided a unique identity through good design, making Swindonan exciting destination
- revealed the cultural identity and heritage of the street
- supported Swindon’s environmental objectives by using locally sourced and environmentally accredited materials where possible.
