Swindon has given five new roads in the Robin Gardens development Bond-related names, bringing a brief James Bond link back into view this week. Among them are Bond Place and Dench Close, while Desmond Crescent and Llewelyn Road also nod to figures connected with the franchise.
The names were chosen to honour the town's ties to the film series, after Swindon's former Motorola building appeared very briefly in The World Is Not Enough in 2001. In the film, the building doubled as a Turkish oil refinery control centre. The site is now a base for Vygon UK, and the new roads sit beside the former Speedway venue Abbey Stadium.
Dan Adams, who has been involved in the naming, said the idea was to make sure “that little bit of history wasn't lost.” He also said it was meant to be done “so that in the future people would remember why they've got these weird Bond movie names even if people do forget in 300 years what Bond even is.” For a town that has been crossed by industry, sport and redevelopment, the Bond reference is now part of the map.
Swindon Borough Council was approached by developer Taylor Wimpey about the naming. The council said most of the streets in Robin Gardens are now occupied by residents, which means the Bond links are arriving not as a branding exercise but as part of an already lived-in neighbourhood. Taylor Wimpey said street naming at Robin Gardens was led by the local authority, and it was happy to support what it called a vision to celebrate an important part of Swindon's identity.
Not everyone connected to the franchise needed persuading. Nathan Pegler said he had worked on Daniel Craig's final film, No Time to Die, released in the UK in 2021, and described being on an “amazing set.” He said he would “love to live in a street that was named after any Bond-related thing” and added, “Let's have some more interesting names.” He said he felt “very privileged” to have worked on the production.
The Bond connection in Swindon is small, but it is specific, and that is why it lands. A town with a one-off appearance in a 2001 film has now fixed that moment into five street names. Residents moving in will not be living on an abstract tribute; they will be living on a reminder that a few seconds of screen time can still shape a place more than two decades later.
