I spent a weekend this November visiting my friends in Swindon and used the opportunity to discover some of Somerset and Wiltshire counties through the eyes of an urbanist. Approaching by train from Cornwall, where I am based currently, I had a stop in Bath - which is often stated as the most beautiful town in Britain - and cycled on along the Kennet and Avon Canal to reach Swindon, which is the total opposite of Bath, a recently planned city-like something.
One might get easily seduced by Bath as soon as having arrived there. It very obviously has a strong Italian feel, especially if you look at Pulteney Bridge (above) that is a somewhat less well-known brother of Ponte Vecchio in Florence. The Roman Baths (arcades below) are located in the very centre of downtown, providing the reason for Bath's existence, add to this impact as well. It is only the weather here in November with some fine and constant drizzle that reminds me that I am still in Britain (which affected the quality of the photos as well).
All in all, Bath seems a pretty livable city on English terms, although there are a bit too much tourists and it is also quite expensive. As I have discovered, it even has a bike share system - I found only one station though.
In fact, I have known Bath from a different source before: on my Urban Studies classes, being the main example of Baroque town planning, namely the Royal Crescent and The Circus (above), which were of course a must see. Baroque town planning actually originates from palace gardens patterns, mainly Versailles, and this part of Bath does feel like a garden of a palace - and make a fine transition to the green outskirts of the town.
More images from Bath here.
Bath lies by the River Avon - however, that is not navigable eastwards, that is why they have built the Kennet and Avon Canal 200 years ago during the boom of canal building. It served the distribution of coal from the Somerset Basin and is an amazing engineering achievement: it spans level differences by 107 locks, while there are also two aqueducts and a tunnel on the peak point. With the appearance of railway the importance of the canal has been decreasing and by the 1950s it has become unnavigable. Restoration started in the 60s and for 1990 it was completely restored, mainly for heritage and tourism.
The Dundas Aqueduct that spans over the River Avon and a railway line
Tourism booms in the summer but not so much in November - the reasons became clear when I rode through National Cycling Network route no. 4 along the former towpath of the canal and by the end of it I was completely covered by mud. The canal is, however, not abandoned at this time. On the contrary: it could deserve the title for the longest car-free settlement of Britain.
The reason for that is dotted almost all the way by houseboats: shiny and shabby, small and big ones, with stuff of the residents on top (firewood, bicycles, wheelbarrows). Of course there are houseboats elsewhere as well, but in this environment where the canal is surrounded by nature, they seem very harmonic. I do not exactly know how it is to live on them: there is no no drinking water, electricity or sewage, altough I saw some solar panels. The canal and thus the houseboats can only be accessed on water or by walk or bicycle. Obviously for bulky stuff the most convenient is to use the canal: that is why firewood and coal are sold from a boat that goes up and down the canal and signals with a bell if it is approaching. But there is also a petrol station for those using the waterway where you can also get some ice cream!
I haven't rode all the way along the canal (it is not possible anyway because of the tunnel midway) but I did cross two of the aqueducts.
More images here.
After leaving the canal I happened to cycle through a village called Lacock which is almost entirely owned by National Trust being a place for heritage architecture. Besides, it is famous as having been a shoot scene for the series called Pride and Prejudice.
So my destination was Swindon where I visited my dear Polish friends and in fact I did not expect anything special from the city - they haven't been overwhelmed with it either. However, arriving there I was completely stunned the structure and the spatial perception of the city. Or the lack of it: the city was almost imperceivable.
Swindon on a satellite image - cycling network in green
Residential areas, which are called
villages - although they have little to do with real villages - are separeated by wide strips of park and woodland and there are two almost completely separated transport systems: one for cars and the other for pedestrians and cyclists. The centre of the city having around 200,000 inhabitants is mostly devoted for offices and shopping. All this might remind us of American cities but with a bit more planning.
Because of the unique structure and the fact that green areas are wooded, the city is not transparent. The consequences are clearly indicated when a stranger comes here, me in this case. I arrived by bicycle from the station and since I haven't noticed any reference to cycle routes, I followed the "normal" roads. I was riding up and down between roundabouts that looked exactly the same, surrounded by wood and no street names. Meanwhile we tried to find each other with my friend by talking on the phone - later it turned out that we were just ten minutes by walk from each other but pedestrian and cycle paths are not visible from the road...
There is an interesting development between the western residential areas and the centre: the Swindon Designer Outlet which was opened on the area of the former Great Western railway works after refurbishment. There are open public spaces between the buildings - providing place for the farmer's market, for instance. It might be a textbook brownfield reuse - on Swindon terms, because there is nothing relevant in walking distance around the site. (There is ample space though - the city should be more dense here.)
This city structure, which was developed from the 60s in Swindon, probably inspired by the garden city movement, thus tries to provide the proximity of nature for residents. Which is mostly true: from the houses that look like they were in Holland it is five minutes by walk to get to the lakeside or to a forest. Community functions are provided in village centres but these are not the most successful structures. We are in England so there is a pub: it is still strange that it is standing on its own. And further 50 metres away there is a Chinese restaurant by the lake - the whole thing looks strange.
Shaw Village Centre in Google Street View (I was only here at night)
Transport patterns only really work in theory: at first cycle routes passing under roads seem amazing but since everything is easily accessible by car and there is a lot of parking lots, plus the cycle routes are "hidden" behind the houses, most people choose car. On the internal roads of neighbourhoods there are no special speed limits and when walking there we once got honked on. This is quite far from a liveable city.
The centre can be accessed by bus although it is rather slow since it serves all neighbourhoods on the route (my first thought was how could these quarters be served by trams, since there is so much space). So Swindon is an interesting experiment in city planning except humans are used for it.
Nevertheless I would not say Swindon is a terrible place. Most people would probably choose Bath and Swindon is actually a transit place for many: people starting their careers in local offices live here for a few years and then they move on. But there is still a chance to turn the city a better place - it has good facilities.
More images from Swindon and
other sights on the way, e.g. in Chippenham.
