Hopefully reopening soon .Sailing ships leaving Swansea Docks alongside the West Pier on the ebb tide c1895 please log in to view this image
Cracking picture . from the early 1900's You can clearly see the Tawe / Strand and railway sidings although I can't see the old Ship Inn (now long demolished) please log in to view this image
yes indeed also the Pump House bottom centre and the Queens Hotel ( that and the Brunswick two of my favourite pubs in town)
Sorry image. Reason for showing is Oscar Chess was on Gloucester Place. Either next door or a few doors away was The Gloucester pub. I remember drinking there,under age,on a Saturday lunchtime meeting my mate there who worked at Oscar Chess. Just doing a bit of research I think it was called,and spelt,The Gloster Hotel. https://ididitthisway.wordpress.com/
A little story about the pub The Gloucester Hotel (sometimes ‘Gloster’) was a pub near Swansea’s south dock. In the early hours of Sunday 10 February 1889 the owner’s wife woke to find an intruder in the bedroom, and fired a revolver at him. He rushed off, and she found that her husband Frederick George Kent had been cut: he died three hours later. The police assisted by neighbours searched, aided by the intruder’s footmarks in the snow which led to the docks. Six hours later they found a man covered in blood hiding near a dry dock. He had a bullet in his thigh. He had dropped his razor (which had been used to cut his victim) and his cap in the bedroom, and the latter helped identify him. ‘Said to be a Zulu’ who had ‘been hanging about the town’ he had been a sailor on the Cubana. A short, slim black man named Thomas Allen, he was taken to the police station – and was abused by angry people (Frederick Kent was well respected). These details come from the Aberdeen Weekly Journal of 11 February 1889, for the incident was widely reported. The Western Mail of Cardiff carried details when it reported the inquest on 13 February 1889. Allen, a ship’s steward, had said that he had not intended to harm anyone. One of the angry crowd had hit him with an umbrella as he was taken into custody, but the Western Mail said the mood had changed. Nothing seemed to be known about Allen, although a black with that name had been sent to prison in June 1888. Allen’s English was fluent (there were reports he had been educated at a mission school in South Africa) and he said that he had been invited into the private part of the pub by one of the servant girls. Neither had been out on the Saturday and both denied issuing an invitation. He had been attacked by Kent when he (Allen) lit a candle and had grabbed Kent’s razor in defence. Mrs Kent testified that her husband had had a beard for fifteen months and that she had never seen that razor. The jury agreed almost immediately that Kent had been murdered by Allen. Most believed that Allen had hidden in the room, planning a burglary. Allen withdrew his statement about the servant’s invitation, and said it was a case of mistaken identity. The Illustrated Police News, a sensational London weekly said (2 March) that Allen had sent a four-page letter to the widow from his prison cell. The trial was at Cardiff on 18 March, when the assize court heard that Allen would not deny killing King but that he had gone into the bedroom at the invitation of a young woman: and had no intention of committing murder. The woman, Annie Taylor, was brought from Swansea prison and told the court she had not seen Allen for ‘several days’. (Standard London, 19 March 1889, page 3). He was found guilty and sentenced to death. A substantial report, with illustrations including one of Allen, appeared in the Western Mail on 19 March (page 3). His letter to the widow (18 February) removed any doubt over identification (Mrs Kent said she did not recognise him). The jury took five minutes to reach their verdict. The Revd Oscar Snelling organised a petition, seeking a reprieve (Western Mail, 28 March). The edition of 30 March published a letter from someone who had been in the court, who pointed out that Kent had attacked Allen who had been sleeping after a drinking session and lit a candle which alerted Kent to his presence – and Kent attacked Allen without a word. Allen defended himself, so the charge should have been manslaughter, not premeditated murder. The petition had been signed by four thousand, including Swansea’s mayor. The Home Secretary saw no reason to interfere and on the morning of 10 April 1889 Thomas Allen met his death on the scaffold at Swansea jail. He had again written to Mrs Kent, asking for forgiveness and she replied, granting that wish. Modern procedures would have involved finger prints and more investigation of whose razor had been used to kill Frederick Kent. If the two juries believed that Allen had taken a razor into the pub then that, combined with his statements and his letters, left little or no room for a murder charge to be changed to one of manslaughter. Many of the newspaper reports used the same texts, and their headings often included ‘Zulu’.
I once owned a Rover SD1 ( middle car on the left of the image) lovely car and I'd love get another. The Maxi behind it was advertised by BL with this feature " Alternatively the same squab can be folded backwards and, in conjunction with the reclining front seats, quickly and easily converts the interior into a four-foot wide, seven-foot long, double bed."
You're right on the location and year The Carmarthen Road Widening project had a longer replacement railway bridge fitted in July 1966 at Cwmbwrla.34 The old Cwmbwrla village was demolished to make way for the new roundabout and dual carriageway, this started in 196735 and was a huge task as they finished construction in the early 70s.36 Many houses were demolished on Carmarthen Road with further road widening from, Cwmdu, Fforestfach and Cadle during the late 1970's, 80s and 90s. Sadly many families which were part of the community lost their homes, but were re-housed. The Retail area of Parc Fforestfach opened off Pontardulais Road in 2002, with such business as: Argos, Boots, Borders, Clarks, Marks&Spencer, JJB Sports, River Island, Pizza Hut and the Carphone Warehouse. In 2011 a small number of these shops have either moved or gone out of business with effect in the current recession. The latest changes for Fforestfach in April 2011 was the demolition of Bob Hughes Carpets (moved his business 2010) and the building of 4 brick, large glass fronted retail units facing Ravenhill Road on the corner of Carmarthen Road and Ravenhill Road. Two of these units are currently occupied by Ladbrokes (betting shop) and Subway (sandwich shop). The Marquis Arms is on the corner of Station Road and Carmarthen Road, its the third pub in my lifetime, the second caught fire and first was demolished with the road-widening. The current Marquis Arms is part of the sizzling Pubs brand owned by Mitchells & Butlers
