A brand new chapter is on the horizon for one of the city centre’s most recognisable buildings
Overlooking the promenade and long sweeping sands of the beach, with priceless views from its many seafront-facing offices, the civic centre is of the most recognisable buildings in Swansea city centre. Home to Swansea Council and the city’s central library, it has been regularly used by people across the city every day for generations.
It first opened in July 1982, as County Hall, as the headquarters of the former West Glamorgan County Council. Then, following local government re-organisation in 1996, its ownership was transferred to the new City and County of Swansea.
The building was renamed the Civic Centre on March 19, 2008, and Swansea Central Library was moved in as part of a redevelopment scheme, where it has remained ever since.
That’s until now, at least.
Forty three years later, the council, and the library, is on the move once again, with a brand new future on the horizon for the civic centre. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here.
But it is not the first time the area will have experienced such dramatic change.
Long before the civic centre was built, there was a thriving community of people living alongside where it now sits.
Bathurst Street, Sloane Street and Paxton Street had to be demolished to make way for the new home of the council, and in the years that have followed, those houses have largely become forgotten pieces of Swansea’s history.
Large engine sheds and associated lines built by the LMS Railway stood on the actual spot of where the Civic Centre is now, with the houses located in the location of the car park.
The locos pulled trains out of Victoria Station on the main line via Blackpill, Killay, Dunvant, Gorseinon and Pontarddulais through central Wales to Shrewsbury.
There were also popular pubs, including the Shipping Inn and the Copenhagen Arms in Sloane Street and the London Hotel in Bathurst Street. You could also find Mrs Phillips’ Dock Tea Shop in Sloane Street in 1875.
Those days are now only vividly remembered most by those who once lived there.
And memories will soon be all that remains of the last four decades’ use of the building, with a completely new future in store.
Regeneration specialist Urban Splash envisages restaurants, cafes and bars on the ground floor of the civic centre and flats and potentially a hotel above.
A two-storey aquarium featuring marine life on the ground floor and digital and educational displays above is also proposed.
Urban Splash would also like to make more of the green space between the building and promenade, with ideas including outdoor markets, theatre and screenings.
The site straddles 23 acres and new blocks of flats feature in the drawings. New leisure and cultural uses, making the most of the waterfront location, also form part of the thinking.
In June, Hollywood actor Michael Sheen announced that the civic centre will be the first headquarters for the Welsh National Theatre. It came as it was announced that Welsh National Theatre’s first production, Our Town, will debut at Swansea Grand Theatre next year from January 16 to 31.
The council is moving over to the former BHS store in Oxford Street, where what will soon be known as Y Storfa will officially open later this year, with an opening date set to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
It is being hailed by the authority as “a modern, accessible hub bringing a range of key public services together under one roof.”
It will house a range of council and partner services, including revenues and benefits, housing options, housing support, the central library, the West Glamorgan Archive Service, and the contact centre.
Citizens Advice, Careers Wales and the South Wales Miners Library will also be based there.
More detailed plans for the future of the Civic Centre are coming soon, with Urban Splash finalising plans for its future.
Whatever comes next, we will soon see a brand new era at a place many once called home.
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