Guildhall - Swansea, Wales, Great Britain.
N 51° 36.862 W 003° 57.580
30U E 433554 N 5718584
The Art Deco, Guildhall & Civic centre, has functioned as the focal point of local government and justice, for over 75 years.
Located in Swansea, Wales.
Waymark Code: WMJRA0
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/23/2013
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The Guildhall has played a central role in the lives of the people of Swansea for the last 75 years.
Prior to local government re-organisation in 1996, it was the City Hall for the former Swansea City Council.
The building is finished in white Portland stone and features a tall art deco clock tower making it a very distinctive Swansea landmark. Part of the clock tower design features the prow of a Viking longboat, a reminder of Sweyn Forkbeard and the city's Viking founders.
"The Guildhall was opened on 23 October 1934, and was originally conceived as the answer to an acute accommodation problem in the former Guildhall at Somerset Place (now the Dylan Thomas Centre). It was erected in a decade of biting recession and high local unemployment, so the construction of the building helped to alleviate local hardships. Had it not been for the availability of unemployment relief schemes, the Guildhall may never have been built.
The building has proved to be functional as well as being architecturally splendid. Its innovative design and features were widely copied in other municipal buildings during the two decades following its completion. As the civic centre, it has functioned as the focal point of local government and justice, it is the fount of civic ceremony, and is one of the principal centres of social and cultural life in Swansea.
The Guildhall has undergone several alterations and extensions, but it has retained its original character as an example of 'a classical approach to modernism'. It is now regarded as an historic building in its own right, and one of which the people of Swansea are justifiably proud." Text Source: (
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Address:
The Guildhall
St Helens Crescent
Swansea, Swansea Wales
SA1 4PE