Geograph - photograph every grid square

This derelict building has a long and sad history. Built as a market hall in 1852, it became the Town Hall. Abutting the Town Hall, the Corn Exchange was erected in 1866.
The large hall in the Corn Exchange was turned into a theatre by 1880 with seating for 1,000 people.
A new Town Hall was built in 1890 and all civic functions passed down the hill in 1891. The hall was converted into an ice rink and in 1919 into a cinema.
It was refurbished in 1949 and became a dance hall, the Locarno, later hosting wrestling events and jazz and pop concerts.
It was a Bingo Hall for some time but closed in the late 1980s and is now derelict and decaying.
Listed, grade II, with details at: Link
Old Town, on its hill above the 'new' railway town, is the cultural heart of Swindon. The old and the new combined into a single town in 1900.