• Swindon & Wiltshire Culture
• Friday February 7 2025
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Trowbridge benches – ‘monstrosities’ and ‘cheese graters’ or actually quite cool?

Arty benches in Trowbridge have been making national news headlines, so Business Biscuit editor Peter Davison headed to Wiltshire’s county town to check them out for himself. 

New seats and benches installed as part of Trowbridge’s £16 million Future High Street Fund programme have sparked controversy.

Even the Daily Mail has had something to say about the ‘unusual orange and maroon artwork’ that has cropped up around the town centre by finding the most negative comments on the Facebook group Spotted in Trowbridge and spinning them into that Daily Mail staple – an Is This What They Waste My Taxes On story?

It’s worth remembering that the Future High Street Fund – launched and funded by Boris Johnson’s pre-pandemic Conservative government to ‘level up’ market towns when ‘levelling up’ was all the rage – is about far more than funky benches.

That £16 million is being used to improve the River Biss corridor, provide grants for businesses to reoccupy empty commercial units, and renovate the Town Hall – transforming an under-utilised public building into a stunning venue for cultural and social events.

The benches element of the project cost £55,000 – around three per cent of the total regeneration budget.

Not sure about sitting on this one

A signifier of intent

Like many of Wiltshire’s market towns, Trowbridge is experiencing a period of metamorphosis. New housing – especially the development of Innox Mills, the former Bowyers meat processing factory complex in the centre of town, with its promised cultural quarter and ecology space – will attract a new generation of residents.

Quick links to Bristol and Bath by rail means a fair few of these new residents will have city jobs with city wages and aspirations – but without the wish to be saddled with the costs of Bristol and Bath housing.

It is for this next generation – whether they work in Trowbridge or further afield – the town’s regeneration is important. They will not want to spend time and money among faded Victorian grandeur and boarded-up factories from the town’s industrial heyday.

These benches – and the colours, by the way, are the orange and maroon of the town’s coat of arms – are a signifier of intent. “Come to Trowbridge,” they say. “We’re the next Frome.”

And yes, in many cases they are more ‘abstract art’ than ‘seat’ – some are quite low down and angled in such a way that sliding off is a distinct possibility.

But then, you can’t make a phone call or post a letter from Alex Chinneck’s street furniture-inspired art around the Assembly building in Bristol – and no one is complaining about that.

photos: Copyright Business Biscuit