‘Will Evans is looking down from among the terraced houses of North Hill. In the bottom right hand corner is the sidewall of the Workingmen’s Club (now Tŷ Tom Jones), which stands next door to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery – opposite are the library, and the art college where he worked. The long void in the centre is the line of College Street running into our Kingsway, then called Gower Street and Heathfield Street. The shapeless mass beyond shows how the bombing took the centre out of the town. One of the problems in relating the town today to the Swansea of the thirties is the lack of landmarks, but one which stands out is the long, pale, arched building, which ran the length of Castle Street from the top of Welcome Lane to Worcester Place, or from the old Argos store to the castle ruins. In January, 1942, the ‘Daily Express’ published a wide angle photograph of Swansea from the St. Mary’s area, in which this rather fine building looked almost as if it was the sole remnant of the town. Erected in 1912 when Castle Street was widened, it was gutted, but had the strength to make rebuilding possible’.

Gerald Gabb, 2021