A towering building in Swindon town centre that has been an eyesore for years is now undergoing a transformation. 

Swindon Borough Council last year received a planning application from LHS Ltd, which wanted to change the outside of the top five floors Falcon House - which are being converted into 65 flats - to be more in keeping with their new purpose. 

The planning application was granted by the local authority in March, and scaffolding now surrounds the prominent building above the closed Debenhams store has begun.

The successful application put in by LHS Ltd said: “There can be little doubt that the existing building is highly visible from a significant area given a substantial height and brutalist concrete style architecture.

“Any external alterations to the upper floors of this building will therefore be significantly visible from both the immediate context and wider area.

“In this respect the proposed external alterations whilst giving this building a more residential appearance at upper floors would result in a more attractive approach to its external appearance and sit well with both within the character of the immediate and indeed wider area.

(Image: LHS Ltd)

When the work has finished, the rows of plate glass windows - many of which are smashed or boarded up, separated by pale, discoloured boards - will be gone. 

Instead, the firm will make the windows of the flats smaller and will run strips of brickwork vertically to break up the visual appearance of the top storeys.

This was objected to by the borough council’s urban design officer who argued the proposal "negatively changes the current brutalist identity.”

READ MORE: Inside Swindon's abandoned Debenhams store almost three years on from closure

But despite this, the council approved the plans. 

The flagship department store beneath Falcon House closed in June 2020 and has been empty since. Urban explorers have broken in and the military have used it for training.

Away Storage Ltd has had a plan approved for the Debenhams building to become a self-storage facility, with four shop units accessible from The Parade end.