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  Museum location in Swansea, Wales | |
| Location | Swansea, Wales |
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| Coordinates | 51°37′04″N3°56′17″W / 51.6178°N 3.9381°W |
| Type | Local history, transportation |
| Website | Swansea Museum |
The Swansea Museum in Swansea, Wales, UK is the oldest museum in Wales, [1] created for and by the Royal Institution of South Wales in 1841 to house its collections and provide research and learning facilities.
Swansea Museum is the oldest museum in Wales. It opened in 1841, founded by the Royal Institution of South Wales (RISW), a group of art and science enthusiasts, six years after the organisation's establishment. The museum is housed in a Grade-2* listed building that was commissioned by the RISW, built in the neo-classical style and completed in 1841. The building was designed to house the RISW's array of collections as well as provide research and learning facilities.
In 1990, guardianship of the Museum was transferred to City & County of Swansea. [2]
Under threat of closure, the Swansea City Council saved the building and its collections in 1996. Swansea Museum now provides free access to six galleries with a variety of exhibits from an ancient mummy's tomb to temporary exhibitions on current issues and modern interests.
In 2015, the museum's future was uncertain, with a 50% budget cut announced in 2015. [3] In 2016, the BBC4 television programme Britain's Lost Masterpieces uncovered a lost study for the Jacob Jordaens painting Meleager and Atalanta , at the museum, which was evaluated at more than £3 million. [4] [5]
In 2019, the Swansea Devil carving was donated to the Swansea museum by the owners of the Quadrant Shopping Centre. [6]
The Museum operates four sites: the Landore Collections Centre, the Marina, the Tramshed on the Dylan Thomas Square and the Museum itself.
The Landore Collections Centre is located in the former rolling mills building of the former Hafod/Morfa Copperworks, parts of which date back to the 1830s. [7] For most of its industrial life, it was used as a rolling mills, but was in use as a warehouse before the Local Authority acquired the site in 1980.
The building provides nearly 2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) of open-plan storage space for the reserve collections of both Swansea Museum and the former Maritime and Industrial Museum. Side rooms provide office and additional environmentally controlled storage space.
Plans to further develop and regenerate the surrounding area into a focus for Wales’ copper history will complement the Collections Centre as a heritage venue. [8]
Access to the maritime section is available in June, July and August. The museum has a number of vessels in its collections: [9]
The Tramshed in the Marina displays memorabilia from the former street trams of Swansea and the Mumbles tram that ran around the edge of the bay from Swansea town centre to Mumbles pier.
Originally part of the former Maritime and Industrial Museum, the Tramshed on the Dylan Thomas Square is now run by Swansea Museum. This conservatory-style gallery displays memorabilia from the street trams of Swansea, including the famous Mumbles train. Large windows illuminate a double-decker tram as well as a reconstruction of the original 1804 horse-drawn Mumbles train, the first passenger railway service in the world. [10]
Swansea is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea.
The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS) in Sydney, and owned by the Government of New South Wales. The Powerhouse is a collection of museums with its main centre in Ultimo, New South Wales, the others being the historic Sydney Observatory at Observatory Hill, and the newer Museums Discovery Centre at Castle Hill.
The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was the venue for the world's first passenger horsecar railway service, located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.
The history of Swansea in South Wales covers a period of continuous occupation stretching back a thousand years, while there is archaeological evidence of prehistoric human occupation of the surrounding area for thousands of years before that.
Swansea railway station serves the city of Swansea, Wales. It is 216 miles 7 chains (348 km) measured from London Paddington on the National Rail network.
Swansea city centre in Swansea, Wales, contains the main shopping, leisure and nightlife district in Swansea. The city centre covers much of the Castle ward including the area around Oxford Street, Castle Square, and the Quadrant Shopping Centre; Alexandra Road, High Street, Wind Street and the Castle; Parc Tawe; and the Maritime Quarter extending down to the seafront.
Transport in Wales is heavily influenced by the country's geography. Wales is predominantly hilly or mountainous, and the main settlements lie on the coasts of north and south Wales, while mid Wales and west Wales are lightly populated. The main transport corridors are east–west routes, many continuing eastwards into England.
The Landore viaduct is a railway viaduct over the Swansea valley and the River Tawe at Landore in south Wales. It provides a link between Swansea city center and the West Wales Line to the South Wales Main Line. The valley crossing provides a panoramic view of Landore, Kilvey Hill, the Liberty Stadium and the Swansea Enterprise Park.
Hafod is a district of the city of Swansea, in South Wales, U.K., and lies just north of the city centre, within the Landore ward. Hafod is the home to the Hafod Copperworks, founded in 1810 and closed in 1980 which is now being developed into an industrial heritage site.
Mermaid Quay is a waterfront shopping and leisure district in the Cardiff Bay area of Cardiff, Wales. The 14,000 m2 (150,000 sq ft) development was opened in 1999, and includes restaurants, bars, cafes and shops.
The Royal Institution of South Wales is a Welsh learned society founded by George Grant Francis in Swansea in 1835.
Landore is a district and community in Swansea, Wales. The district falls in the Landore council ward. A mainly residential area, it is located about 2.5 miles north of Swansea city centre. The north-easterly part of Landore is known as Morfa. There have been a number of new developments in the 21st century, such as the Liberty Stadium, now the Swansea.com Stadium, and the Morfa Shopping Park, which opened in 2005. It had a population of 6,168 as of the 2011 UK census.
The Swansea Improvements and Tramway Company operated street trams in and around Swansea in Wales from 1878 to 1937.
The Riverside Museum is a museum in the Yorkhill area of Glasgow, Scotland, housed in a building designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, with its River Clyde frontage at the new Pointhouse Quay. It forms part of the Glasgow Harbour regeneration project. The building opened in June 2011, winning the 2013 European Museum of the Year Award. It houses many exhibits of national and international importance. The Govan-Partick Bridge, which will provide a pedestrian and cycle path link from the museum across the Clyde to Govan, is set to be completed in 2024.
The remains of the Hafod-Morfa Copperworks, originally developed by Vivian & Sons, consists of a core Grade II listed building and additional Grade II listed structures on a 12 acres (4.9 ha) site, on the banks of the River Tawe in Hafod, Swansea.
Tramshed is a music and arts venue in Cardiff, Wales, located in a Grade II-listed building that was once the old tram depot for west Cardiff. The newly redeveloped venue opened to the public in October 2015. It has a 1,000 capacity, however this is only reached up to six occasions per annum.
Tramsheds may refer to a tram depot. It may also refer to:
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