I have to say that reading the posts up to page 8 it did strike me that there were hardly any real mentions of Swindon pubs outside of the Glue Pot, Bee Hive, Wheatsheaf in OT.
I have been around the globe (the world that is) and I have drunk and gotten drunk in numerous places whose names escape me but for me this has to be about Swindon, which is a bit of a struggle sadly. The criteria to use is of course personal and in my case the ones I am about to mention have a special place in my soul mainly on a nostalgic basis.
The Harvester circa mid '80's
The Worthington late '70's
The Bell Old Town late '70's and '80's when Claude owned it
The Wheatsheaf Old Town Early '80's
The Fox and Hounds Green meadow '90's
Sadly these days my local is the barren and soulless Woodlands Edge, after the demise of the Foresters.
The proper classic Bell period, was late 60's early 70's....when the bar was upstairs. Downstairs was a steak and chips eaterie, proper sophisticated as the only other place where you could eat out in Swindon, aside from probably the Khyber, was The Crown at Stratton. Blunsdon House had a tiny dining room, but that was pretty much in the sticks.
The downside, for I think Berni Inns, was that the unwashed hedonistic masses, had to have access to the downstairs, for entry and exit and maybe even bogs....which wasn't a good mix.
Turning it around, didn't help either, and the restaurant side flopped....Claude tried to remedy the situation by knocking the place about, and ripping out the stairs, which was done by a bunch of drinkers furnished with tools and some beer after closing time for a few nights.
I lived elsewhere, through most of the 70's but returned to Swindon at the end, so naturally thought give the Bell a go and it still retained a bit of its buzz...just right for starting the night, then falling into Vadims. By the start of the 80's, it started to get chavved up, and you could almost guarantee a fight....proper shame, as it lost its more chilled punters, who'd made it what it was. It never recovered.