Swindon's David Murray John tower immortalised in Lego

This follows a free unveiling event that took place at the venue on April 12 to celebrate one of Swindon's more recognisable and well-liked pieces of architecture. 

"The David Murray John Tower makes as an unmissable a mark on Swindon, as did the town clerk whose name it bears and who commissioned its building," said blogger Angela Atkinson, who has published several books about the town, and organised the event. 

"Further, the singular fact that architecture expert, Jonathan Meades, placed the building on his personal list of five extraordinary buildings IN THE WORLD is another reason to be proud that the DMJ is ours.

"We have a building that rubs shoulders on an architectural list with Marseille Cathedral, Bavaria's Valhalla temple, Somerset's Cothay Manor and Edinburgh's Stewart's Melville College. How cool is that?'

Photo: Royston Cartwright

The model of the building made entirely out of Lego was put together by Save Oasis Swindon's Neil Robinson. It cost him £400 to get all the bricks he needed, as he needed to source specific ones from all over the world. 

"I have always loved some of our unique architecture in Swindon. I think they are great to photograph. My two favourite buildings are the Oasis, and the David Murray John Tower. They were both opened in the same year in 1976. They were both ahead of their time, bold and innovative. The town had vision and ambition back then, to create these unusual structures," Neil said. 

"I am part of the Save Oasis Swindon Campaign, so the plight of the Oasis has recently made me think about other landmarks in Swindon that we take for granted, the David Murray John being the next main landmark that comes to mind. The model took about a month to make, with parts coming from different countries as Lego discontinued this particular colour of grey. In total 1,800 bricks were used. It was very fiddly to make."

Neil added that the library approached him and asked to display it, which he gladly accepted so that it wasn't sat in is house "gathering dust."

As well as the unveiling of the Lego model there were several talks about the DMJ. Angela spoke about the building's history, Neil talked about building the model and the library's local studies manager Darryl Moody talked about the man himself - David Murray John.