HOW TO KNOCK DOWN GEORGIAN BUILDINGS AND HISTORIC FILM LOCATIONS, WITHOUT ANYBODY NOTICING

The Kingsway, Swansea, has plenty of modern, thrusting buildings, but not so many Georgian ones…In fact the last ones were just pulled down, so now it doesn’t have any!

These shops came through two world wars, but were no match for Swansea Council and the developers.
Reel Streeters will know that ‘Only Two Can Play’ was filmed here in Christina Street, around 1962.


It was all a bit knocked about, even then.

Give them a few more years of neglect and by 2008 they looked like this:

Hard to see the fabric of the buildings, behind all the tat, isn’t it?

May 2009 and the scaffolding goes up:


Watch it all come down...

All gone... poof!

Am I a silly old thing to care?
I suppose so... We must all ‘get with it’, now.

It’s just that this corner was a nice little shopping precinct, as it was set back off the road.


Peter Sellers, Kingsway Swansea, 1962.
Picture courtesy of David Roberts from his book ‘Thank You For The Days, Swansea’ (that’s Entertainment).

I could have imagined a photo or two of Kenneth Griffiths and Peter Sellers, even a few words pasted up about the film.
Maybe something about the history of that part of town too (I’m sure the site has been occupied for hundreds of years).
With the shops restored to all their glory, it would have been a real treasure and asset to the city.
All it needed was not to knock down the frontage, the interior of the buildings could have been as thrusting and modern as you like.

All gone now and never coming back.

Thank you, Swansea Council for looking after our heritage...Not!

Brian Tunstill.