Down to the old docks and the rather charming little church dedicated to St Nicholas, the patron saint of travelers. I walked from the station down High St, Castle Square and Wynd St., before crossing a dual carriageway - the noisome A4067 - to what was once the political and mercantile hub of the city. It is now a backwater. Wynd St is about the most architecturally interesting street left in the city. It was once the commercial hub of city with any number of banks. It is now the hub of the city's 'night-time economy' and it is looking very down at heal. One building in particular looking ready to shed quantities of cornice down onto the street below.
The church was built in 1868 as part of the mission to seamen. The architect was Benjamin Bucknall (1833-95), the architect of the extraordinary, but unfinished, Woodchester Park. He was also architect of Swansea Grammar School. It was Benjamin's nephew William who was business partner of Sir John Ninian Comper qv. St Nicholas's is a simple bi-cameral church in the Neo-Norman style, and I rather like it. Partly because it is so unexpected, like a little village church fell asleep one day, woke up and found itself by a vast, often ugly, city. It is now the 'Mission Gallery'. The apse, as is fitting, is the best bit.
The church stands at the end s end of Gloucester Place; on the west side of the street is rather fine but austere terrace. They look as though they've popped over from Ireland. These few streets between the docks and the A4067 (what is now called the Maritime Quarter) are really the only area of the city where any real numbers of Georgian houses are left - though are suspect one or two more are to be found lurking behind later facades on the High St.
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