1A-1E, Emlyn Square, Swindon, SN1 5BP
1A-1E, Emlyn Square, Swindon, SN1 5BP
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1283694
- Date first listed:
- 17-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- 1A-1E, Emlyn Square, Swindon, SN1 5BP
- Statutory Address:
- 1A-1E, Emlyn Square, Swindon, SN1 5BP
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-07-28
- Reference:
- IOE01/04316/23
- Rights:
- © Dr Robert Slade. Source: Historic England Archive
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1283694
- Date first listed:
- 17-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- 1A-1E, Emlyn Square, Swindon, SN1 5BP
- Statutory Address 1:
- 1A-1E, Emlyn Square, Swindon, SN1 5BP
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- 1A-1E, Emlyn Square, Swindon, SN1 5BP
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Swindon (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- South Swindon
- National Grid Reference:
- SU 14586 84842
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 28/04/2020
SU 1484 NE
6/76
SWINDON
EMLYN SQUARE (east side)
No. 1a - 1e
17.2.70
GV
II
In order to house the workforce for the new Great Western Railway works, IK Brunel designed a new village to the south of the railway line. Brunel’s early layout drawings of 1840 show a grid similar to the final plan of 12 terraces in six blocks on either side of the High Street (from 1893 Emlyn Square). Construction started in 1842, and by 1855 most of the buildings had been completed. Houses and cottages of different types were built, as well as lodging houses. Brunel himself designed only the first block of 1842 (4-25 Bristol Street); as it was visible from the railway line, this is in a more decorative style than the others.
The financial difficulties of the contractors JD & C Rigby, who undertook to build 300 cottages but only completed 130, delayed the completion of the village until the 1850s. The cottages to the west of Emlyn Square were built first (1842-1843), followed by those on the east side (1845-1847). The end blocks towards Emlyn Square, containing corner shops on the ground floor, were built in 1845-1847, and the remainder, mostly end blocks on the outer ends of the streets, were built in 1853-1855. In 1966, the local authority acquired the cottages from British Rail and restored them. The village is one of Britain’s best-preserved and architecturally most ambitious railway settlements.
House, now flats. 1846. For Great Western Railway Company. Coursed limestone rubble with ashlar quoins. Slate roof. Three storey corner block with one-bay to Emlyn Square and three bays return to London Street, with splay on corner. Entrance in two-storey lower section on Emlyn Square. Chamfered ashlar quoined windows. Twenty-pane casements to ground floor sixteen-pane above and with eight-pane on splay, all with label mouldings. Keyed oval oculus in each gable.
Listing NGR: SU1458684842
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 318736
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Large, F, Swindon Retrospect 1855-1930, (1931)
Peck, A, The Great Western at Swindon Works, (1983)
Silto, J, A Swindon History 1840-1901, ()
Hudson, K, Transport History, ()
Cattell, J, Falconer, K, Swindon: The Legacy of a Railway Town (RCHME), (1995), 44, 56-59
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 11-Jun-2026 at 05:04:34.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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