The flagship that's becoming the Mary Celeste
If a planned cinema closure goes ahead the Regent Circus Development will be left with two tenants
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The latest news about the once prestigious Regent Circus Development should worry all who care about the town centre
It is a decade since the opening of the retail and leisure hub which replaced the old Swindon College building. Many of its spaces are currently empty, including that of the large former Morrisons supermarket which closed in 2019 - and now Cineworld is set to close.
By Barrie Hudson
There are various websites, online fora and video channels devoted to something called The Backrooms.
For the benefit of anybody not in the habit of exploring the quirkier corners of the internet, or who is not particularly interested in artistic representations of general spookiness, The Backrooms are a fictional realm of endless, dim and maze-like corridors and deserted rooms in some strange dimension, in which a person might become lost forever. Enthusiasts upload pictures and videos of their own versions of The Backrooms, which range from AI-generated art to photographs of the gloomy interiors of deserted hotels and office buildings.
The Backrooms are in turn part of an aesthetic concept called Liminal Space, which is defined in its Wikipedia entry as “…empty or abandoned places that appear eerie, forlorn, and often surreal.”
Were it not for the fact that the Regent Circus Development is well lit and wide open at both ends - to a view of the library and town centre at one end and uphill toward the popular Beehive pub at the other - it would be steadily edging toward Liminal Space status.
While such status might make for an atmospheric setting for a film or novel, it is not something to be desired in a place intended to draw revenue and help to make the town centre a more enticing place for visitors.
Last weekend saw news emerge that Cineworld - in response, it says, to the rise of streaming and the major hit it took during and in the wake of the pandemic - has earmarked its Regent Circus branch, along with five others across the country, for closure. Unless there is a change of plan, the screens will fade to black for the final time in late September.
At that point, unless there is a sudden influx during the interim, only Boom Battle Bar and Nando’s will remain.
This is a very worrying development indeed for anybody, be they the most prominent politician, important official or ordinary member of the public, who cares so much as a whit about Swindon, its economy and the future of its town centre.