A pedestrian underpass below Fleming Way has now closed - and not for the first time.

A peek into the Adver archives indicates that there has been more than one way to cross underneath the busy main road over the years.

The oldest available photos, which sadly have no date on them, show black-and-white snapshots of a large roundabout at the corner of Fleming Way and Princes Street, with a slim path for pedestrians underneath and a wide green space in the middle.

That area is now where the Whalebridge car park stands tall in the town centre - the roundabout was removed in 2011.

Photos from 2003 offer a gloomier glimpse of a narrow, tiled underpass that makes harmless passerby look like suspicious and shadowy figures.

A headline next to one of these images calls for an end to this particular underpass, and it seems that did indeed come to pass, as pedestrians must now use a traffic light-controlled pedestrian crossing to get from Fleming Way to the other side of Princes Street, near the former Jurys Inn that is now known as Leonardo Hotels.

That junction has recently been fine-tuned, with the council carrying out work to add an extra southbound lane on Corporation Street to enable traffic to go straight on past Fleming Way and up towards Princess Street.

This work will make the junction compatible with the Kimmerfields site and the Fleming Way scheme.

Speaking of which, there are a couple of photos of the pedestrian underpass at the bottom of The Parade which show how busy it could be in the noughties, and include nostalgic looks at a shop and cafe that is no longer there.

On Monday, August 14, this underpass closed for good and will soon be demolished so that Fleming Way can be lowered down to the same level as The Parade.

As with Princes Street, the below-ground crossing will be replaced with a pedestrian crossing on the main road which is controlled by traffic lights.

Until this is finished, shoppers face a diversion of around seven to 12 minutes when walking to and from the bus station into Swindon's main shopping area.

Swindon Borough Council is working with its main contractor Colas to see if the crossing area can be opened before the final completion date for the entire redevelopment scheme, which is expected to be in 2025.