Swansea is a city and county on the south coast of Wales.

The National Waterfront Museum, in a renovated warehouse with a slate-and-glass extension, features coal-industry artefacts. Swansea Museum’s collection includes maritime paintings, plus boats in Swansea Marina.

The Dylan Thomas Centre commemorates the 20th-century writer with hands-on displays. Swansea Market offers local produce, crafts and other goods.

About the city and county of Swansea, Wales
Known as ‘The City with a Soul’, the nations third biggest city has been producing steel since 1690, when John Watts founded the town’s first ironworks, earning itself the nickname Copperopolis.

Swansea lies at the mouth of the Tawe and Gwendraeth Valleys, as it is one of the most ancient cities in Wales it was granted a royal charter in 1215. It is quickly gaining a reputation as a tourist destination as it has many prehistoric remains nearby.

The world-famous Liberty Stadium is located in central Swansea, and home to Premier League football team Swansea City. The Swansea.com Stadium originally opened in 2005 as the Liberty Stadium with a capacity of 20,750 but has now increased to 21,088 and are all seated. The stadium is home to EFL Championship club Swansea City and the Ospreys rugby team. Following Swansea City’s promotion to the Premier League in 2011 the Liberty Stadium became the first Premier League ground in Wales.

As the largest purpose-built venue in Swansea it follows the Millennium Stadium and the Cardiff City Stadium to be the third largest stadium in Wales.

Swansea has a rich heritage which can be seen throughout the city centre. The cobbled streets are lined with Georgian buildings such as White House, Llwyngwril Arms Hotel and Piazza building – all on an elevated site overlooking Oystermouth Road Basin below. Visitors can explore this area by following our Heritage Trail leaflet which features over 100 points of interest within an 8 hour walking tour around this small section of old town. Swansea also hosts two magnificent sandy beaches stretching for 3 miles along its coastline: Mumbles Promenade to Oystermouth Castle and Gower Memorial Park to Port Talbot Steelworks East Jetty.

Had you grown up in Swansea, not only would it seem normal to have a number of beaches within a short drive from your home but it’s highly likely that you would take their beauty for granted. There are an estimated 30 beaches and coves stretched along the 39 mile Gower peninsular and it would take on average 4-5 days to walk it.

Having been voted 3rd place in Trip Advisor’s visitor poll for the UK’s Top 10 Beaches, Rhossilli Bay needs no introduction. In fact, in 2017 Suitcase Mag crowned Rhossilli as the best beach in Europe, surpassing sandy shores of Spain, Greece and France to become the only European beach worthy of a place on Suitcase’s top 10 beaches in the world list.

As of the 15th of March the brand new Swansea Arena opened its doors to the public. As part of the £135 million Copr Bay project, Swansea Council has allocated £48 million towards the development of the new venue.

So what’s all of the fuss about? 

For a start the city centre’s new arena has a 3,500 capacity – a mixture of standing and seated – which has already generated an exciting line up of live musical performances including Royal Blood and Alice Cooper.

Additionally there is an impressive array of live comedians scheduled, including:

– Rob Brydon

– John Bishop

– Alan Carr

– Katherine Ryan

– Bill Bailey, and

– Kevin Bridges.

Through the 20th century, heavy industries in the town declined, leaving the Lower Swansea Valley filled with derelict works and mounds of waste products from them. The Lower Swansea Valley Scheme (which still continues) reclaimed much of the land. The present Enterprise Zone was the result and, of the many original docks, only those outside the city continue to work as docks; North Dock is now Parc Tawe and South Dock became the Marina.

High Street (1915)
In the Second World War, Swansea’s industrial importance made it a target of German bombing, and much of the town centre was destroyed during the Swansea Blitz on the 19, 20 and 21 February 1941 (the ‘Three Nights Blitz’).

In 1969 Swansea was granted city status to mark Prince Charles’s investiture as the Prince of Wales. The Prince made the announcement on 3 July 1969 during a tour of Wales. Swansea obtained the further right to have a Lord Mayor in 1982.

Within the city centre are the ruins of the castle, the Marina, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea Museum, the Dylan Thomas Centre, the Environment Centre, and the Market, which is the largest covered market in Wales.

It backs onto the Quadrant Shopping Centre, which opened in 1978, and the adjoining St David’s Centre opened in 1982. Other notable modern buildings include the BT Tower (formerly the GPO tower) built around 1970, Alexandra House opened in 1976, County Hall opened in July 1982.

Swansea Leisure Centre opened in 1977; it has undergone extensive refurbishment which retained elements of the original structure and re-opened in March 2008.

Area
• Total – 380 km2 (150 sq mi)
Population (2016) –
• Total – Unitary Authority area: 238,500 Ranked 2nd
– Urban area within Unitary Authority: 179,485
– Wider Urban Area: 300,352
– Metropolitan Area: 462,000
– Swansea Bay City Region: 685,051
Time zone – UTC0 (GMT)
• Summer (DST) – UTC+1 (BST)
Post codes – SA1-SA9
Area codes – 1792
Vehicle area codes – CP, CR, CS, CT, CU, CV
OS grid reference – SS6593
Police Force – South Wales
Fire Service – Mid and West Wales
Ambulance Service – Welsh