Apsley House (Swindon)
It was built c.1830–1840 and faced in ashlar Bath stone, and has a shallow porch over the central entrance, in the style of a Doric portico. The house has two storeys at the front and three at the rear; a modernist extension was added to the right in 1963–1964, extending along Victoria Road above a row of shops.
The house was for a long time the home and business headquarters of the Toomer family, who ran a local coke and coal business. From 1930 until 2021 it housed the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery but the museum vacated the building and the house was put up for sale when its owners, Swindon Borough Council, decided it was no longer suitable and required major repairs.
Apsley House was designated as Grade II listed in 1951. Julian Orbach, updating Nikolaus Pevsner's Wiltshire volume in 2021, calls it a "good ashlar villa".
References
- ^ Atkinson, Angela (15 July 2019). Swindon in 50 buildings. Amberley. ISBN 978-1445690476.
- ^ Historic England. "Bath Road Museum, Apsley House and gate piers (1023456)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ^ Orbach, Julian; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (2021). Wiltshire. The Buildings Of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. p. 694. ISBN 978-0-300-25120-3. OCLC 1201298091.
- ^ "Apsley House, Bath Road, Swindon". swindon182.rssing.com.
- ^ "Swindon Museum and Art Gallery". Culture24. Archived from the original on 12 August 2018 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Kendall Adams, Geraldine (6 July 2021). "Anger over proposal to close Swindon Museum and Art Gallery building". Museums Association. Retrieved 5 January 2023.