Mind, Body and Soul: An investigation into the architectural and ideological functions of the Great Western Railway’s Swindon Railway Village

Located at the centre of Swindon, the Swindon Railway Village (SRV) was a residential and social hub for Swindon and its Great Western Railway (GWR) locomotive and carriage works. The SRV was established in 1841 to the designs of the famous engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and expanded throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century to serve the GWR’s needs. By 1891, it comprised of around 287 cottages, a large mechanics’ institute, a market, a cottage hospital, an expansive company park, an Anglican church, a Methodist chapel, swimming baths and a medical dispensary. The SRV was a complex multi-functional space that could support a railway worker from cradle to grave. This report aims to reinvigorate an understudied area and to answer the central research question— what were the architectural and ideological functions of the SRV?

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Added By:	Elangkathir Duhindan
Date Added:	18 Feb 2022 11:11
Creators Name:
Tags:	Brunel, Architecture, Railways, workers, communal, community, Utopia, cottages, Turkish baths, heritage, heritage asset, Swindon, historic England, Victorian, industrial town, Foucault, biopolitics, ideology.
Viewing permissions:	World
URL:	https://open-education-repository.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/802
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