THE future of Swindon’s town centre appeared on the Swindon Advertiser’s front page almost exactly half a century ago.

Admittedly the reality ended up differing radically from the concept, but the message, delivered on the 20th anniversary of VE Day, was clear: the Swindon of tomorrow would soon be here.

The budget was £3m at a time when the average worker took home well under £20 per week.

We said: “The scheme, accepted by the council at last Tuesday night’s meeting as a basis for further discussion, envisages traffic-free shopping precincts leading into a spacious square.

“It will be overlooked by a 12-storey building, a leisure centre, with perhaps a dance hall and bowling alley, covered and open markets and a small park with a lake.

“It is planned to build an overhead road for buses and goods vehicles. Motorists will drive off Commercial Road into a multi-storey car park and descend to the shops in lifts.”

The caption below the photo of the model went into further detail: “This is how the site, bounded by Regent Street (at the top right of the picture), Havelock Street (on the right) and Commercial Road (at the bottom) may look after redevelopment.

“In the centre is the proposed 12-storey building along one side of Brunel Square. The other square immediately to the left shows the stalls of the open market and the two arched structures represent the covered market.

“Adjoining buildings form the proposed leisure centre, with a rooftop cafeteria overlooking a park and lake.”

We added that one of the new shops was likely to be a six-storey Anstiss department store, replacing one lately destroyed by fire. The brand was as prominent a part of Swindon’s commercial life as rival department store McIlroy’s.

“Adjoining this store,” we said, “which may eventually extend way beyond the present site, will be series of new shopping precincts, roughly parallel with Regent Street, linking Havelock Street to a further development of The Parade and balancing the new shopping area between Regent Street and Fleming Way.”

What was eventually built – the shopping area centred around the Brunel Centre and the David Murray John Building – was very different in layout to what was proposed in 1965, but every bit as futuristic for the time.

Anstiss never did get its shiny new site, and a second fire some years later ended its presence in the town centre.