The catering and hospitality sector in Swindon
- Head chef salary (September 2019) in Swindon: £30,000 a year / £14.69 per hour
- Sous chef salary (September 2019) in Swindon: £24,900 a year / £11.98 per hour
- Chef de partie salary (September 2019) in Swindon £21,500 a year / £10.37 per hour
Sandwiched halfway between Bristol and Reading, the Wiltshire town of Swindon is not somewhere that’s widely celebrated for being exceptional.
Once dubbed “the most average town in Britain” because its demographic makeup mirrors that of the country, Swindon has unfairly been dealt a bad reputation in the past. Things are changing, however. Surrounded by some of England’s finest countryside and containing a host of Victorian parks and gardens, museums and galleries, there’s more to Swindon than high-rise apartments.
Of the town’s museums, the Museum of Computing and the Swindon Museum & Art Gallery are the cream of the crop; the latter of which is home to one of the finest 20th-century British art collections outside of London. Other iconic buildings in Swindon include the Link Centre, the Spectrum building and the David Murray John Tower. The Spectrum building, designed by world-renowned architect Norman Foster, is now a listed building.
Swindon also has an unlikely connection with everyone’s favourite fictional spy, James Bond. In Ian Fleming’s famous books, Swindon was Bond’s favourite town. Fleming was a notable Swindon resident and is buried in the town, while the futuristic Motorola factory at Groundwell had a cameo in The World is Not Enough.
If that’s not all, Swindon also had an indirect hand in the creation of Britpop kings, Oasis, who named themselves after the town’s Oasis Leisure Centre. As the story goes, Liam Gallagher saw the venue advertised on a tour poster and had an epiphany. The rest, some might say, is history.
The food and drink scene in the town is growing, too, with a thriving and affordable casual dining culture attracting diners from all over the region.
According to the latest Blue Arrow data, the average head chef in Swindon can expect to take home up to £30,000 a year, while a sous chef earns around £24,900.
And for chefs looking to upskill, Swindon has many opportunities for training and development. New College Swindon, for example, offers courses in hospitality management and food safety in catering.
