West

The Mechanics' Institution, at the centre of Swindon's historic railway village, was a focus for community life for more than a century.

It housed a theatre, a library and a snooker hall. But dramatic change began in the 1960s and when the Swindon railworks were eventually shut down, the Mechanics followed.

For the last two decades the doors have been firmly closed.

Inside Out West cameras have been given exclusive access inside to see what has become of the building.

Breathtaking Victoriana

At first it is hard to see anything except piles of junk and peeling paint but through the darkness the splendour of the Victorian design is still breathtaking.

Interior packed with Victoriana

The building is in a terrible condition but with a little imagination it is easy to see how grand the facilities once were.

Click here to view our exclusive video tour inside

The building is owned by property developer Mathew Singh, who has recently opened a "Planet Bollywood" Indian restaurant in Swindon.

Enterprising plans

Mr Singh has enterprising plans to turn the Mechanics' into a profitable hotel with more than 100 bedrooms.

Mechanics' Institution... new plans criticised

He is also planning flats, a gymnasium, cafes, an art gallery and offices.

But Mathew's hotel plan has been turned down by English Heritage.

In a statement English Heritage told the BBC: "We felt the proposal put forward for a hotel, including a very large extension, was too detrimental to both the building and the Great Western Railway village."

'Plans horrifying'

Mathew cannot understand why he is not getting planning permission.

He says he has followed the advice of the council and English Heritage and radically scaled down his original, much bigger, design only to be told he still cannot go ahead.

He says: "It has to be something spectacular but the people around me, the officials, don't see it that way".

Martha Parry is the co-ordinator of the New Mechanics' Institution Preservation Trust which is campaigning for the building to be restored as a public facility.

She finds Mathew Singh's plans horrifying: "What he's proposing to do with this building is not just an insult to the building but it's an insult to the neighbours and people who would have to live with it".

World heritage status 'at risk'

The Preservation Trust says the hotel plans jeopardise Swindon's chances of world heritage status as part of the Great Western Railway.

Martha Parry: Keen critic of development plans

The trust has drawn up an alternative vision for the building, which would rely on a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to make it available for community uses.

Martha says: "We've done a business plan at our own expense. We have raised the funding.

“We have shown that this building could carry its own weight as a non-profit enterprise, not commercially, not for profit, a charity."

Not for sale

But Martha's plans look unlikely to succeed. The Preservation Trust does not own the building and Mathew Singh insists it is not for sale.

Mathew Singh: Perplexed by planning refusal

The only common ground shared between the opposing parties is that they both want to see the building saved.

But until there is a resolution to the arguments over its future the Mechanics Institution will continue to decay.

Also on the programme

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And Mark Horton meets the Chippenham man on a quest to find sunken treasure.