Welcome to the Brunel Development
FI Real Estate Management and the project team are pleased to welcome you to our public exhibition to view the exciting redevelopment of the Brunel Shopping Centre, 44-54 Canal Walk, Swindon.
FI Real Estate Management is a privately owned property company active in both property asset management – with a £3 billion UK portfolio
covering over 10 million sq ft – and property development within the residential, retail, office, industrial and leisure sectors.
We are hugely excited about our plans to regenerate and make better use of this prominent site by working in partnership with Swindon Council, our tenants, businesses and the local community.
Site Overview
Positioned in the heart of the Town Centre, the Brunel Shopping Centre is home to over 100 shops, equating to 520,000sqft of retail space.
It is is made up of five distinct areas including Canal Walk, The Plaza, Havelock Square, Regent Street and The Arcade. The Centre also benefits from an adjoining 750-space multi-storey car park.
An opportunity exists to further enhance it’s profile further by transforming a section of the Centre adjacent to Canal Walk – the existing House of Fraser – into a landmark leisure attraction.
Together with this, there is an opportunity to encourage a new residential presence into this part of the Town Centre, bringing even more vibrancy and activity to this key location.
Forming the edge of this could be an exciting new public green space, acting as a threshold from Farnsby Street to the west into the Retail Centre.
Design Development
- Arrival into Wharf Green from Canal Walk is currently underwhelming and with no clear signposting or sense of place.
- There is limited interaction along the House of Fraser ground floor frontage, with upper levels closed and lacking in animation.
- The existing connecting routes from Wharf Green to Farnsby Street, such as the undercroft passage beneath Brunel Car Park South, are uninviting/secondary in nature.
- The service ramp off Farnby Street creates a visual impediment and underwhelms as entrance point into Wharf Green and the retail centre.
- An opportunity exists to create landmark, alongside the existing David Murray John tower, within Wharf Green to signpost square and create destination point.
- Greater animation and visual interest could be created along the Wharf Green edge to reinvigorate square, via a new active frontage.
- An opportunity exists to create a stronger connection between Wharf Green and Farnsby Street, leading to wider Heritage Quarter to the north.
Locations: Wharf Green & Farnsby Park.
Wharf Green:
Wharf Green is a generous public square at the end of Canal Walk, surrounded by retail on three sides and the Brunel Car Park to the west. It is predominantly hard-paved with some mature trees and seating.
This space could be enhanced to the benefit of the new leisure and residential scheme, as well as the wider shopping centre and Swindon as a whole.
Greater activation and vibrancy along the Wharf Green frontage can be created in the form of a new, highly-visible commercial offer.
This activation can encourage greater use and movement through the important public realm of Wharf Green, helping to strengthen circulation routes within the Brunel and outside of the retail core.
Farnsby Park:
The approach from the west to the new leisure and residential entrances could be through a green pocket park giving 2,100sqm of green amenity space.
This new pocket park will lead pedestrians directly towards a new western Arcade entrance facing Farnsby Street. This will align with the existing Arcade internal street and provide a natural flow of movement between inside and out.
New residential entrances will sit adjacent to Farnsby Park, providing private access for residents. At roof level, residents will benefit from views over this new green space.
Let us know your feedback
All comments received will be considered and will assist the project team in finalising the proposals for the mixed-use redevelopment of the site. Anything you tell us will be treated confidentially, and no individuals will be identified when comments or feedback are reported as part of our Statement of Consultation.
Please see note on Data Protection below. It is not mandatory to provide your contact details although it may help us to address your queries. All comments will be considered.
Thank you for taking the time to find out about these exciting proposals for the Brunel Shopping Centre and for completing this questionnaire.
DATA PROTECTION: Any information you give to us will be held securely and in accordance with the rules on data protection. We will treat personal details as private and confidential and safeguard them. We will not disclose them to anyone unconnected with this consultation / application unless you have consented to their release or in certain circumstances where, (1) we are legally obliged to do so; (2) disclosure is necessary to enable us to deal with your enquiry; (3) where “legitimate interests” are relied on in relation to specific processing operations.