Swindon Designer Outlet

It’s a drive from London, but it is hard to beat those prices.
I went here with my girlfriend on Boxing Day to get her jeans and some clothes, maybe something for me. Who knows. I’m not epicly into shopping but if I see something I like, then sure, let’s do it.
Basically, this is a mall. Lots of stores under one roof, with brands you know (Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, H&M, even things like Marks and Spencers). Some of the stores are epic in size but most are small boutiques.
I will say, the prices here are insane. Most of the times, they’re about 30 percent off, but we saw up to 70. I got a really fantastic blazer for £16. That was unheard of. In fact, in the end, I actually bought way more stuff than the girlfriend, which was truly really absolutely a surprise for me. I can’t say I’ve ever done something like that before in my life.
We went early morning on Boxing Day and it was a little crowded. By the time we left, people were queuing up just to get into certain stores. That seemed like insanity to me, but to each their own. They also have a limited amount of chain food places to eat (Wagamama, KFC, Giraffe), if you are hungry.
So if you love shopping, this place is solid. If you hate shopping, still, solid. Hard to beat.

Currently the outlet is under a lot of renovation, including some of the stores being shut while it is happening. This is partially why I gave it a lower rating and will update when they have finished the renovations. The Outlet is easy to get to… near the M4, but also easy to get to by public transport or by walking from the town centre. There are two car parks. The west car park also has a restaurant (Bottelino’s) to one side of the car park. If you wish to park here, you do have to keep in mind that one of the roads (the one that wraps around the car park) is only for buses. That means you if you end up at the north car park and want to get to the other one, you cannot just drive down Rodbourne Road and turn into the bus lane. It is a bit confusing and actually, having waited for the bus, I have seen a number of cars make the wrong turn and not understand why the buses are beeping at them.
Anyway, the outlet is all covered, so it is a great place to shop when it is raining outside. There are kitchen stores, outdoor stores, clothing stores (ranging from Next to Ted Baker), shoe stores, and a couple of miscellaneous stores, like Whittards, Cadbury, Thorntons, Yankee Candle, etc.
The Food Court is still under renovation, but there is a KFC, Pizza Express, and Wagamama, as well as a sandwich/​coffee place and Ed’s Easy Diner just outside of the Food Court. There is also a Costa Café and Starbucks. There are public toilets just inside the west entrance as well as a spa. You’ll find the outlet information desk near the north entrance. Outside of the north entrance you can find ATMs, a burger truck, an ice cream truck as well as the National Trust Archives and STEAM Museum.
The car park does charge, however, if you spend quite a bit of money (I believe I overheard one of the staff telling a customer £100). The car park does close 30 minutes after the shops close, and the shops close at 8 p.m. I didn’t have a problem with this originally, however, since Pizza Express and Wagamama have now opened with external entrances and closing times at 11 p.m. and 10 p.m. respectively, I guess I’m wondering how one goes about parking when they want to have dinner at one of these restaurants. While we don’t usually go to dinner much past 8 p.m., we don’t usually get to restaurants until about 7 or 7:30 p.m. and I would feel rushed so we could get back to the car. I hope the outlet will consider this and consider extending the time for the north car park until 30 minutes after the restaurants close.
I usually find some great bargains here, not all the time, but it is a nice change from the High Street or Town Centre.

Great for a family shopping trip with lots of room and child friendly play area, it’s safer and better than your average high street shop!

This is a designer outlet village located off junction 16 of the M4 near Swindon. Quite a lot of roundabouts to get to it but there’s ample parking once you get there. Parking is charged but if you spend more than £100, you can get your parking ticket redeemed for free.
There is a good selection of shops, all under cover, covering middle to upper class shops. Food is available at a food court and at various cafes.
Apparently, Stores have to sell their goods for at least 30% discount here.
A highlight of Swindon!

Doesn’t have the sort of discount shops I would like but well worth a visit if you are looking for more expensive clothes or walking/​camping equipment as there is a wide range of shops and stock.

Better than Bicester for sure. As a lover of quality rather than fashion i am pleased to be able to buy from the likes of Aquascutum at reduced prices.
As others have said it is worth going just to look at the great use they have made of what was arun down rail station.
If I was to give them one tip to improve then it would be to do something about the food. High fat, High carb, High Sugar may appeal to many, but an option of a real quality restaurant or two would not go amiss (at least with me!)

This is a great shopping complex, built in the old rail yard of the Great Western rail srevice, that seems to go on forever and ever. They have a great selction of stores, from clothing and homeware to jewellery and chocolate shops. A great place to shop for Christmas gifts as everything is under one roof.
The food hall is limited and staff working in there seem to be in a perpetual bad mood, could be the hordes of people they have to deal with on a daily basis, however would rather pop back across the road and head to Bottelinos.
Everything you need under one roof and a covered shopping arcade so therefore good for those rainy days.

Top marks for reviving a run down building. I remember I lived in Swindon when the mall first opened and the change it brought to a otherwise abandoned part of the town. There is a shop for everyone and it brings the american shopping mall concept to a british railroad heritage site.

A good place to do a few hours shopping. All under cover so if it is raining probably a good choice. There are lots of sports shops where you can pick up a bargain — Nike, Puma etc and the stock here seems to be the same as on the high street. The other shops seem a bit behind the trends but you can still find some good bargains if you look for long enough.
Car parking is cheap — £1 for about 5 hours and you could walk into Swindon centre from here if you don’t mind a bit of a walk.
There is a food court serving pizza’s, jacket potato etc. It is a bit pricey and lacks any real atmosphere when you sit down to eat. Convienient though.
Plenty of toilets along the way.
They have a lovely home section, which includes M&S. You can buy fridges, freezers, washing machines etc here all at lower prices because of an aesthetic flaw. This, along with the sports wear is probably the best section.

The Outlet centre at Swindon is housed in old Railway buildings and it is a nice touch to make use of the existing building and keep some sense of history to the place. There are plenty of shops to keep you occupied for a good few hours, ranging from childrens clothes to homeware. There are a lot of bargains to be had if you sift through the items on offer. If you get tired and need a break there is a good food court and there are a few coffee shops dotted around to give you a chance to get your second wind ready for more bargain hunting.

The outlet village is one of the newer shopping malls in swindon. It has a large range of shops and a food court inside. I think most of the shops are aimed at the older generation as they dont really have any shops for the younger generation. The mall is always kept very clean which is good and it is also never that busy so its very easy to get around. I think it could benefit by having more shops for all different ages but thats its only downfall.

The Great Western Designer Outlet Village is a good day out for the family. There are lots of shops that will please both adults and children. There are a number of high street retailers like next, book shops, toy shops and all kind of other shops and I think that most people will find somewhere that they like to shop, plus most of it is heavily discounted. Unfortunately there isn’t much for teenagers in terms of shopping.
One of the things I like best is that there is so much for children to do. They have a bouncy castle and slide and there’s an outdoor play area right next to starbucks, so parents can get coffee while their children play.
I absolutely love the food court, there is so much variety of food.

I love this place. There are loads of shops and in an easy environment to navigate. Plenty of signs around so you know what is where, and all the homeware is in one huge room.
Limited eating, but I always go for the shops. It can range from highstreet, up to some higher end places and there’s usually something for eeryone

I consider Swindon outlet to be the best outlet i have visited. There are a good selection of brands– from Marks and Spencers, Gap, Puma & Ben Sherman to Burberrys, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss & Timberland. There are also a few shop homes such as Whittards, Antler (luggage brand), Samsonite, Le Creuset & Emporio furniture.
The food court is great and there are plenty of options to suit everyone. Parking is easy and convenient– £1 for upto 5 hours!
It is worth signing up to the club on the website– you occasionally get emailed vouchers for 10% or even 20%.

The Great Western Designer Outlet Village is a great place to go shopping. There are lots of shops there, all undercover in a big mall type place that was made in the old buildings of the Great Western Railway. It has been constructed sympathetically in keeping with the old buildings.
There is lots of car parking, although you do have to pay, it is not free, unless you spend over £100 in total. Most of the shops are clothes shops, with lots of designer names, although there are also shoe shops such as Clarks and fast food outlets there to grab a bite to eat.
There is a park there for the children to play on when they are bored of shopping and even a crèche if you want to leave them to play for an hour whilst you shop.
It is open until 8 most nights. It gets very crowded at the weekends, but is really peaceful if you want to do your Christmas shopping there one evening in the week.

The great western designer outlet is a great shopping centre, although the shops are expensive. It always has a great atmosphere at christmas time with the christmas lights and music. It’s indoor, so is popular with shoppers at this time of year. It has a big food court with a range of food to buy, and seating to eat. Most of the shops are designer, although there are a few highstreet ones such as Claires Accessories. It has a play park outside too, for the children. There is a café which looks out onto the play park if parents want to enjoy a drink and bite to eat while the children are playing.

Housed in part of the former railway works in Swindon, this outlet mall offers over 100 retail outlets under one roof.
The architecture of the former works makes for an interesting and very attractive shopping environment, although walking around each of the four malls involves quite a trek. There’s a homes area with an open-​plan layout covering different brands of china, cookware and furnishings, but most of the shops further on are given over to clothing — mostly High Street names rather than top labels, although it does include some slightly higher-​end stores such as Aquascutum, Burberry, Jaeger, Hugo Boss, Ted Baker, Thomas Pink, Timberland, Van Heusen and Tommy Hilfiger. As you might expect, the level of discounting varies hugely, and depends on what you are after.
Gap, Next and Marks and Spencer also have large stores, although I found these tended to be for end of lines and older stock, so the choice was a bit limited. There are a dozen or so sportswear shops, too, (eg Nike, Puma, Foot Locker, Hi-​Tec, Mountain Store), so it’s a good place for outdoor kit, and there’s a fair range of luggage and accessories shops.
The food court has been expanded and, while there’s no proper restaurant, the choice at least includes a Starbucks, Costa Coffee, and a pizza café as well as fast-​food. The main coffee bar is currently graced with a real GWR steam locomotive on loan from the Severn Valley Railway: a somewhat ignominious location for such a fine machine!
There are plenty of toilet and baby-​changing facilities, a crèche, telephones, a cash-​point and an information point. The whole site has level access and there’s a Shop Mobility facility.
The site is a 10 minute walk from Swindon railway station, or regular bus services operate from the town centre: services 1 and 1a, operated by Thamesdown Transport (Tel: 1 793 428 428), run regularly seven days a week.

I tend to go through phases of enjoying shopping. But there are a couple of coffee stops on the way round. There is also a crèche for children under 8 (I think!). My son won a ride on train from a colouring competition there last year — we never win anything.
But as everything is under cover it can make for a nice change — especially now my eldest son has decided that it’s good to buy clothes and look cool!!!
If you are looking for something really specific this may not be the place for you — but if you like browsing — it’s just the job.
They have recently added a John Lewis Furniture bit, so that’s good. Also plenty of parking and if you spend enough you can get your parking for free.

As often with outlet villages if your joe bloggs then there won’t be as many bargains because they will have sold on the high street. But I am not and have found it to be very fruitful.
A great selection of shops to choose from, formal outfits to footy boots!

Interesting location — especially if you are a railway enthusiast — for this mid market factory outlet mall.
A good selection of brands, mostly high-​street rather than high-​end designers, but still worth a look.
Limited places to eat (especially if you are not a fan of fast/​junk food); hopefully that will be improved. Great if the weather is atrocious because the whole mall is under one roof.