Council planning new theatre on Swindon bus station site

The authority is actively looking at building a new theatre and performance space on the site of the current bus station on Manchester Road to replace the Wyvern, once the transport hub has been moved to the new Fleming Way bus boulevard in 2025.

Leader of the Labour administration, Jim Robbins, was speaking to a 140-strong audience at a heritage 'conversation' event on Monday evening.

He said: “It’s early stages but we think we have a way to getting a new theatre built there.

The Wyvern theatre is coming to the end of its useful life (Image: Newsquest)

“When the buses all move to the Bus Boulevard, then we’ll knock down the bus station and that’s where we’d like to put a new theatre. It will help unlock the Kimmerfields area and regenerate that part of the town centre.”

Cllr Robbins said the new theatre should be a flexible space allowing it to be adaptable to different events: “If you get a comedian in say, and they’ll sell only so many tickets, you can have that number of seats. But if there’s a big show that needs 2,000 seats you can have that as well.”

The previous Conservative administration had started working on plans for a theatre in the same general area of the town centre as part of its Cultural Quarter plans.

A glossy brochure issued in 2021 shows a 1,200-seat theatre and new art gallery and museum as the anchors for a central plaza.

But Cllr Robbins said: “When we took over there weren’t really any developed plans, so we’re starting again. We’ve had a really positive conversation with the Arts Council on what we’d need to do to get the venue."

What both the previous and current administrations agree on is that the Wyvern Theatre at the top of Regent Street is no longer fit for purpose.

The cabinet member for arts culture and heritage Marina Strinkovsky told the audience: “The Wyvern is coming to the end of its life, in two ways. It’s a concrete building, it wasn’t built as a Regency building intended to last for 300 years and it’s too small."

She added the building is showing signs of its age.

Cllr Robbins added, when questioned about whether the Wyvern would be demolished: “No, we’ll keep it, and it will be as a performing space and we’d hope it is well-used by community arts groups, but the main professional theatre will be where the bus station is now.”