Last night the sky above the iconic Oasis Leisure Centre lit up with a fantastic fireworks display put on by local fireworks company, Distant Thunder. Crowds from across the borough and even as far as Bristol to both celebrate the huge milestone, and stand in solidarity with the campaign group Save Oasis Swindon who organised the event, to tell the Labour led Swindon council and property developers Seven Capital that they want their beloved leisure centre re-opened along with keeping the sports hall started arriving as early as 5pm, two hours ahead of the fireworks display, and by the time the sky lit up, hundreds of people filled the carparking area to the front of the iconic down.
The message was clear, bring back the much loved leisure centre and keep the sports hall! In the build up to the display, there was speeches from the organiser of Save Oasis Swindon, Neil Robinson, Swindon’s very own comedian Ivo Graham, along with Chic Carvell who was the first Deputy Manager of the Oasis when it opened on 1st January 1976.
Along with speeches, there was entertainment from Worried About Mike who performed an acoustic set, including some Oasis hits and a poetic tip of the hat by Tony Hillier to the iconic dome and to artist Ken White, who sadly passed away on Christmas Eve.
Such a display has not been seen in Swindon since years gone by where fireworks were fired up above the equally iconic building, the David Murray John Building in the town centre.
On the 1st January 1976, Swindon’s flagship leisure facility, the Oasis Leisure Centre opened its doors to over 20,000 people, with the then mayor at the time John Stevens who for the opening took to slide to take the first plunge in the lagoon pool. At the time, the Oasis was ahead of its time! And heralded that ‘Swindon would acquire the nation’s, maybe even Europe’s most spectacular, futuristic and…“space-age-like” indoor swimming experience and leisure complex.’
The vision started back in 1968, the Borough Council came together to discuss the future of Swindon which was already a rapidly expanding town. The then council had a vision, and that included a state of the art leisure centre. A leisure Centre that would go on to win international acclaim, including voted the worlds best swimming complex by the American Swimming Pool Association!
At the time it was the largest leisure dome in Europe. An architectural marvel, the dome itself was imported all the way from the US and was the key feature of the leisure centre, resembling a flying saucer, giving the Oasis its futuristic, space age look. The pioneering design represented a major shift towards fun focused leisure centres, attracting visitors from all over the country. Everyone wanted to come and experience a Hawaiian style tropical paradise right here in the heart of Swindon.
As well as being a leisure and sporting facility for the people of Swindon, the centres multi-use sports hall played host to not only sporting events, including boxing, wrestling, roller derby, the sports hall which even today, 50yrs on is still the largest in Wiltshire hosted some of the worlds biggest bands, solo artists and comedians, including AC/DC, Status Quo, Ed Sheeran, Kasabian, Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds, Madness, Stereophonics, Roy Chubby Brown, Jimmy Carr, Jason Manford and John Bishop.
Founder of Save Oasis Swindon addressed the crowd by saying: “How can possibly Swindon Borough Council and Seven Capital want to knock half of this down and not replace it? It doesn’t make sense, so tonight this is going to be a celebration for the Oasis, and we are sending a strong message to the council and Seven Capital that we want this place opened ASAP, 5years is too long for it to be shut, and now we are in the sixth year of being closed”
Robinson went on to say: “It’s an absolute travesty that it has closed down, the Oasis was poorly maintained and Seven Capital want to demolish the sports hall and surround the site with flats”.
Also speaking was the iconic leisure facilities first ever deputy manager, Chip Carvell, when speaking to the crowd, he said: “What went on there, inside the Oasis on the first day we opened it, it was so busy, we had the crowed queuing all the way down the ramp, and my director of Arts & Leisure said to me, who’s no longer alive now, Dennis Hudson, he said to me how the hell are we going to manage with this lot? And I said don’t worry, everything has got programmed in”.
Carvell, went on to say: “This is something that the council and Seven Capital cannot forget, this was built as a community leisure centre, and it should go back to the community, profit is all very well, but we can run this centre as a break even, and thats what happened when we first opened it. They need to knock down and rebuild the dry-side with modern technology, a new main hall with adaptable facilities to be used, so you can with your children enjoy lots of sports as well as going into the pool and enjoy the fun in there”
Carvell finished with saying: “We need to as the community of Swindon put pressure on the council and on Seven Capital”.
Back in 2021, the former mayor John Stevens, who opened the Oasis back in 1976 said, when talking about the closure: “I had the pleasure and privilege of opening the Oasis, on New Year’s Day 1976, but never thought that I would see the day it could be closed – a very sad day indeed.
“It was back in 1968 when the Borough Council discussed that, with the rapid expansion of the Town and the surrounding areas, we consider the building of a state-of-the-art leisure centre.
“I had the good fortune of being on the Arts and Recreation Committee where we discussed and debated as to whether we could afford this kind of building and design.
“We were aware that we were opening a very fine building, one of the best in the country, with this type of pleasure dome and provide the finest leisure activities in the country. Despite the financial restraints of the times we were committed to the people of Swindon and the surrounding area, to provide a fine and exciting building for the use and enjoyment of the community.
“Let us not lose what was achieved for the people of Swindon, which is still enjoyed today by many of our residents, who look to the opportunities to keep fit and also relax”.
Finally, to lead into the countdown to the fireworks, Comedian Ivo Graham spoke a few words, reflecting on what the Oasis meant to him, he said: “Standing in a cold car park on New Year’s Day to celebrate a closed leisure centre tells you everything about how much this place means”
Ivo went on to say: “The Oasis is also linked to pop culture history. It is widely believed the building inspired the name of the band Oasis after Liam Gallagher spotted it on a tour poster in the early 1990s, although this has never been formally confirmed”.
Sadly, there is no positive news about any work starting, let alone the Oasis ever even opening again, the site now owned by property developers Seven Capital failed to have their planning application passed which would have seen over 700 high rise flats dwarf the iconic Grade II listed building, and the Labour led Swindon Council also seem to have no real vision for the iconic leisure centre and have been accused by many Swindonian’s as corrupt and hiding information about the future of what was Swindon’s premier leisure facility, with unsubstantiated claims from Cllr’s Jim Robins & Kevin Small that the dry side has no future due to being financially not capable of bringing in revenue to the leisure centre.
It is widely known by industry experts that leisure facilities survive because of their dry-side, particularly the sports halls, and that its the wet-side that is the financial sink hole. We at Entertainment Swindon have sent multiple times a Freedom of Information Request to see the reasons and proof that the council say they have to support the claims that the Oasis sports hall is financially not viable, they have refused on basis of commercial sensitivity surrounding the plans of the Oasis.
So after five years of being shut, and five decades since this iconic building opened its doors for the first time, the people of Swindon have spoken, they have shown their disappointment towards the Swindon Council leadership, to Seven Capital, with passion and even stronger support for the campaign to save Swindon’s iconic leisure facility that they hold deeply in their hearts and memories.
Entertainment Swindon 
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