On your left is a low brick-and-glass building with a broad flat frontage, a recessed entrance, and permanent Swindon Arts Centre lettering marking the doorway.
This is one of Old Town’s quieter workhorses: a two hundred and twelve seat venue that opened officially on Saturday, the first of September, nineteen fifty-six. Mayor N-V Toze did the honors with Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, the vice-chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain. But the idea was older than the building. About ten years earlier, Swindon had already set up an arts centre in a former Methodist Hall in the town centre... which is a very Swindon solution, really: culture first, ideal building later.
What matters is that this place never aimed to be grand for grand’s sake. It hosts professional shows and amateur productions side by side, which gives it a healthy lack of snobbery. In January two thousand and three, a refurbishment added a lift in the new foyer, better access to the first-floor auditorium, accessible toilets, and new seats. Then, in twenty ten, the ground floor got a full rethink: a performance studio, bar, café, and space for the Old Town public library.
If you check your screen, the bronze veneer sculpture Applause outside sums up the spirit nicely. A theatre that literally put clapping in the forecourt. Richard Digance became the venue’s first patron in twenty ten, and Pam Ayres supports its Friends. Today, Trafalgar Theatres manages it for Swindon Borough Council.
If you plan to return, it usually opens from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon, Monday to Saturday, and stays closed on Sunday. This place proves that a modest stage can still hold a town’s cultural nerve. When you’re ready, head on to the Old Town Hall for our final stop.
