This is Swindon's second rail station - the first was in Old Town but closed many years ago, leaving this one in the New Swindon area.  The station building opened in 1842 and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel - originally there were two buildings but one was later demolished.  The rather handsome building, built of 'Swindon stone', is Grade II listed; there is interesting information about the station in the details about the listing at the  Historic England  website.

Even in our relatively short lifetimes the main entrance into Swindon's railway station has completely changed.  The original building looked like a railway station but progress dictates it must look modern so we now have an autonomous looking entrance which has no individuality (apart from the name of course!).  Perhaps the worst part of its appearance must be the hideously out of place office building which donimates the scene - they knocked down a building designed by Brunel and built this instead?  If it wasn't for the sign nobody would even know this is a railway station.

Swindon's railway history is so important to the town that it would have been nice to have kept the facade for heritage purposes even if the inside needed to change to accommodate modern technology and the huge increase in passengers.  Through the entrance is the ticket office and the tunnel underneath the tracks to get to the platforms.  It is good to see one of the station buildings still remains (perhaps because of its listing?) and one of its waiting rooms is rather old fashioned but lovely to see it survive in this plastic and metal world of todays modern decor.

Despite our scathing of the front entrance, the large area in front of it was renovated in 2012 to make it more welcoming and practical for users and at the same time new trees were planted and the Jubilee Clock installed making it a rather pleasant space.  On 26th October 2016 it was fittingly named Sir Daniel Gooch Place, the unveiling of the nameplate and plaque undertaken by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.  We have quite a few photographs of this, which can be seen at  Naming Ceremony.