As I walk through Swansea city centre on a drizzly Monday afternoon, I hear the intense humming sound of a drill, the clanging of scaffolding being put up and the shouts of construction workers building the next phase of various upcoming developments. Of course these noises make my Monday walk far from relaxing - but in some ways hearing these sounds is actually a very positive thing, as they suggest work is progressing on the building projects in an otherwise pretty tired city centre.
Swansea was decimated by bombs in the Second World War. The Three Night Blitz in February, 1941 saw 230 people killed, 397 people injured - and lots of the city's most striking buildings were flattened to the ground. Whilst some of Swansea's oldest buildings, including the Castle, Swansea Museum and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, miraculously survived the blasts, the then-town's commercial heart was "razed," historians from Swansea Museum say, with the destruction of the popular Ben Evans department store and the Victorian market.
With this in mind, we don't have many gorgeous historic buildings in the city centre. So why is it that some parts of it still manage to look so dated? Walking along Oxford Street, it's wonderful to see so many blossoming independent businesses full of customers at ground-level, but look up and you'll see floor upon floor of shabby, empty rooms that perhaps were once people's homes or businesses but are now just an eye-sore begging for TLC.
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And whilst both Picton Arcade and Shoppers Walk have a few hidden gems (who doesn't love a nice shoe shop?!) and popular hair salons, there's also a few empty units and a few more that are only open on certain days - not ideal if you haven't thought to look up the opening hours of businesses ahead of your visit, as very few people do!
Whilst they're not as striking as the gorgeous arcades in Cardiff, they don't deserve to be so overlooked; but would certainly benefit from further investment and a fresh lick of paint, so more people would meander around the shops inside them, rather than just use them as a cut-through to Singleton Street or The Kingsway.
We live-streamed from Swansea city centre during our latest visit, you can recap our FacebookLive here:
Ah, The Kingsway. The road that keeps changing (who doesn't remember the struggles of the main road when it was one-way?) but still somehow looks the same as it always has. Fortunately, The Kingsway will soon be regenerated, and the city centre skyline transformed, thanks to a striking new development on the street, aptly named 71-72 The Kingsway. On the site of the former Oceana nightclub, knocked down in 2018 as part of the regeneration of The Kingsway, a huge new multi-million pound office development is taking shape.
When complete, the development will have enough space for 600 workers and will be worth £32.6m to Swansea's economy each year, Swansea Council says. Developers hope it will become something of a "landmark office building" for Wales and that it will offer something "very different" to office blocks elsewhere in the city and beyond.
The development aims to attract companies working in the digital, tech and creative spheres but will also have some public spaces, including an events hall, retail units and food and drink areas. Personally, I think it's brilliant to see this sort of high-end development being built in the city. Hopefully, it will entice companies not currently based in Swansea - or companies based elsewhere in the city - to migrate into the city centre, and - I have my fingers crossed for this - will encourage the further growth of The Kingsway and neighbouring streets as the office workers will inevitably want places to eat lunch and shop or socialise with colleagues after work.
At the moment, near the development, there's a brilliant live music venue called The Bunkhouse, a popular Wetherspoon pub called Potter's Wheel and a Mediterranean-inspired high-end fashion shop called Moda, which boasts Versace, Armani and Ralph Lauren pieces among its collection. It would be great to see the growth of further businesses around the new office development and I do hope the office workers will wander into Oxford Street and the Quadrant on their lunch breaks and support other shops and businesses around - this would certainly inject some energy and spending power into the city.
Just behind the building site of 71/72 The Kingsway, it's hard not to miss the construction of a towering residential building. On the site of the former Woolworths store, which later became a Poundland, construction workers have been hard at work building a 12-storey "living building" between The Kingsway and Oxford Street, to the rear of Picton Yard.
The building is set to house an educational facility, residential apartments, shops, offices and a courtyard - with plenty of green spaces and greenhouses for local residents to grow fruit, vegetables and other plants. The walls and roofs of the building will be "biophilic" which means "connected to nature" - adorned with gardens and plants in what is being dubbed an "urban farm-style greenhouse".
Earlier this week, the project manager for the Biophilic Living Project, Lee Wrightson issued an update on how the project is progressing and shared pictures showing the ongoing work. "Works are progressing as planned on the scheme. To date we have carried out some demolition works to the rear of the former Woolworths building to make way for the very unique tower block," he said. "We then carried out continuous flight auger (CFA) piling which averaged from 15m to 23m in the ground which enabled us to start the concrete frame. We have retained as much of the existing building as possible to reduced the embedded carbon.
"Currently we are due to finish the concrete frame structure in six weeks. Once complete the top of the building will sit just over 57m above ordnance datum. The views from the top are really breath-taking. The project's aim is to provide sustainable city living by means of a co-operative shared ownership model... with the creation of a community-interested company and giving access to food, social care, learning facilities and resources, amenity spaces on the rooftops, and a healthy lifestyle encouraging active travelling.
"Biophilic Living Swansea brings a whole ecosystem around a community offering relief from energy poverty by providing access to clean renewable energy while reducing hunger and social isolation. This means not only a reduction in use of carbon-intensive energy but sequestration through green spaces. It will become the heart and lungs of the city centre and hopefully a standard of building for the future." You can read more about this in a previous article here.
Elsewhere in the city, our fantastic Swansea Arena also stands tall. In its first year of opening, operators Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) had put on 141 events including 56 performances and 85 conferences, seminars and corporate events. Whilst this figure was lower than the aim of 100 performances for its first year, the arena has undoubtedly proven a valuable asset to the changing face of Swansea city centre. Whilst we have smaller live music venues elsewhere in the city centre, and our lovely Swansea Grand Theatre is always worth a visit, the Arena has already seen some big names perform and is slowly but surely putting Swansea on the map for hosting huge bands and entertainers.
But whilst the Arena, the 'Golden bridge' connecting the Arena to the city and the coastal park have been open to the public since March, 2023, and the neighbouring bar-restaurant The Green Room has been operating throughout this time too; various other developments promised as part of the wider £135m Copr Bay development project are yet to be finished.
Back in March, we reported that the paint which coated the steel on the structure of the multi-storey car park needed to be removed and reapplied - and it has taken months to rectify. And whilst works on the units along Cupid Way - the short street which runs from just past St David's Place to the golden bridge - are said to be progressing, the eateries there were actually meant to be open and fully operational by now.
We know at least one business owner has actually pulled out of the units there. After waiting for so long for the units to be built, mother and daughter duo Katharine and Jess Partner decided to move their business to College Street in the city centre - where it is said to be doing well. But there's still no sign of the coffee shop, sweet shop or chicken restaurant along the street.
Plus, we are still waiting for the promised four-star hotel, which will provide much-needed rooms for audiences attending gigs and events in the Arena. Again, the hotel was meant to be open by now - but it's not even been built yet.
Elsewhere in the city centre, works are continuing on the corner of Portland Street and Oxford Street (opposite Barclays bank) turning empty units into new apartments and retail units. But renovation works don't appear to have begun yet at the former H Samuel unit which closed down unexpectedly last December after decades of trading there, there's a row of four empty units on Oxford Street just before Barclays bank which are begging for some TLC, or to be ripped down and rebuilt, and ugly scaffolding has been at one city centre building for five years now.
Fortunately, progress has really stepped up at the old BHS unit which is being transformed into a new hub for Swansea Council. Built as part of Swansea's ongoing £1billion regeneration, the hub - set to be named "Y Storfa" ('the store,' a nod to its BHS roots) will become the home for a variety of council services including the city's main public library, the West Glamorgan Archive Service, Swansea's Career Wales service, and Citizens Advice Swansea and Neath Port Talbot, with more public services at Y Storfa set to be confirmed in the coming months.
Reflecting on the progress of the development, earlier this week Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart said: "It's fantastic to see this building in the very early stages of its transformation. It'll be a welcoming place for many thousands of people and will help bring new footfall to the city centre. Local businesses - as well as the many people who use it - will benefit from Y Storfa. It'll be another great reason for people to enjoy their city centre, standing right next to Castle Square Gardens which is due to get a greener, more people-friendly new look soon."
Years ago, Castle Square Gardens was filled with beautiful green spaces - but they were then concreted over, much to the dismay of local residents and business-owners. But in December, 2021, Swansea Council announced it would be turning the tired, concrete area into a beautiful, leafy space - not unlike how it used to look years ago. Whilst it was hoped the new gardens could be in use by late-2023, the development is yet to get going - so hopefully we'll see the transformation of Castle Square Gardens in 2024.
Whilst it does seem that a heck of a lot of Swansea city centre is "in-progress" rather than actually being finished and ready to be occupied by residents, tenants or business-owners, we mustn't ignore recent announcements of new shops and units in the city centre that are nearing completion.
Next week, a unit on Oxford Street that's been empty ever since Sports Direct relocated to Parc Tawe in July last year will be reopening. OneBeyond, a discount superstore and sister store of OneBelow, will be opening in the unit - whilst popular American BBQ restaurant Cattle & Co. has now confirmed it is moving into eye-catching premises on York Street in the city centre, which have been empty since Positano restaurant closed there in the summer, following the closure of Juniper Place and Old Havana bars earlier in the year.
A spokesperson for the company which owns the former Juniper Place unit told WalesOnline: "We are very pleased to have agreed terms with Cattle & Co and support this Welsh business as it looks to grow its brand. After a challenging time for landlords and operators in the hospitality sector, it's pleasing to see that the building will be rejuvenated and operate at full capacity once more.
"Planning had also been achieved for a second floor roof top terrace, and there are further plans for the ground floor micro-distillery to be extended. We look forward to seeing these exciting schemes delivered."
With so much rubble, scaffolding and building work going on... and on... and on.... it's so hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But when developments like 71/72 The Kingsway, Y Storfa, and the Biophilic Living Project are finished, and works at Castle Square Gardens, Oxford Street and Portland Street get off the ground, Swansea's city centre area really could be a sparkling gem on Wales' crown.
The city centre is going to be an amazing place full of life and energy in a couple of years time... There's just a lot of work that needs doing before then.
