Even Closer to Home - Swansea

Swansea is the nearest city to my home. It's a city with an industrial heritage which goes right back to the industrial revolution, and a maritime heritage which goes back further, although it only received the Royal Charter granting it city status during my own life time, in 1969, to commemorate Prince Charles' investiture as the Prince of Wales.
Here's a selection of my Swansea sketches: -

The full figure just above is Captain Cat, a character from Dylan Thomas' play for voices, "Under Milk Wood". That play is set in the fictional Llarregub, which is supposedly based on the sleepy seaside village of Laugharne, further west along the coast of the Bristol Channel. However Dylan himself was born in Swansea, and as one of the most important poets of the 20th Century Swansea is justly proud of him, and actually takes its role as a cultural centre for the area very seriously. This statue, and the statue of the seated Dylan Thomas himself also picture above, are in Swansea Marina, and literally yards away from the Dylan Thomas Theatre and centre for the arts. 

The Marina itself was constructed from the Swansea South Dock, which was closed at the end of the 1960s. It took over a decade for plans to be approved and for construction to be carried out, but the Marina now is possibly the most vibrant and interesting area close to the centre of the city. If you look at the sketch on the immediate left, you can see the Pump House restaurant which was built inside the shell of the Victorian former pumping house of the docks.  Fairly close by are two of the country's collection of Historic Ships which are moored outside the Waterfront Museum, which is the more modern and interactive of the two museums close by, and which pays special attention to the city's Maritime and Industrial History.

As I've already mentioned, the Marina is one of the more vibrant areas of Swansea. This next sketch shows the luxury flats which have been built on the old docks, and also gives a hint of the wide variety of boats moored there. Funnily enough, despite me saying it's a vibrant area, which it is, I do find it a calming and peaceful experience to take a sketchbook to the Marina in the middle of the day, and just sketch anything that takes my fancy.

One historical fact that most people who don't live in or near Swansea don't tend to know, is that Swansea was the home of the world's first ever passenger railway. It opened in 1807, but it was horse drawn rather than steam powered for several decades. In the 20th century it was really a tramway, although the decision was made to close it in 1960, scrap the trams, and rip up the tracks. Sadly only one front end of one tram remains, and this is on display in the tramshed adjacent to the Waterfront Museum, which you can see in the sketch alongside. 

The Waterfront Museum houses a replica of Richard Trevithick's first ever steam locomotive. This actually first ran in relatively nearby Merthyr Tydfil, which problems with the cast iron rails cast doubt on its potential. Trevithick was one of those inventors who sadly never received much wealth from his invention, and had to watch credit go to later work by the Stephensons, amongst others.