Swan Walk Albion Way Under Construction

A Memory of Horsham.

In this aerial view the early stages of Swan Walk's construction are visible, along with Albion Way that is near completion and which was opened the following year by the Queen.
Between the late 60s and early 70s a large area just north of the town centre was cleared; this land once had a gas works and some other industrial buildings including properties owned by the town brewer 'King and Barns' which sadly closed in 1999.  This area was bought out by the council, bit by bit, and the buildings that stood on this large site demolished in order to make way for Swan Walk shopping centre and Albion Way, the much needed town centre relief road which was named after a street lined with Victorian terraced houses that was demolished in the new road's construction.  This street once stood just south of Royal & Sun Alliance, and adjoined Madera Avenue. The alley that leads from the Carfax (beside Halifax) once lead to this street.
Most of this area in the early 1970s was used as a car park for shoppers. By the time this picture was taken the new Blackhorse Way multi-storey car park had opened, which allowed the car park to be moved.
Swan Walk got its name from the pub that stood at the West Street entrance to the shopping centre until 1973, when it was demolished to make way for the new shopping development. This aerial view shows how the construction of Swan Walk began at the West Street entrance and worked it's way back. The encasement of the Capital Theatre by Swan Walk and its car park is in the beginning stages here.
In the bottom left of the picture can be seen the final stages in the construction of the larger Tesco building off Worthing Road (this was to replace the smaller one on West Street) which was open until circa 1986, when the Broardbridge Heath store opened.  Now this building houses Argos, McDonalds and others.
As you can see this aerial view is a real insight into the changing face of the town and the beginning phase of the town's modernisation programme which only recently ended!

I recommend buying this photo to fully appreciate it in detail.

Article by Toby Gray, an amateur Horsham historian. All of the above infomation is correct to my knowledge.

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