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Dylan Thomas - City Centre Trail

Captain Cat in the Dylan Thomas Square area of the Marina

Follow the trail down Somerset Place and then left into Adelaide Street. On the corner of these is the graceful architecture of the former Harbour Offices, now a listed building. Next on the left are the offices of the South Wales Evening Post, Swansea's daily evening newspaper. This was the paper - then the South Wales Daily located in Castle Street - that Dylan joined as a junior reporter in 1931.

Left into Cambrian Place and then right into Gloucester Place, and on the corner is The Queen's Hotel, notorious in the hey-day of Swansea as a port, as a haunt of sailors, dock workers and 'ladies of the night'. The Queens remains largely unspoilt, and retains a sea-faring atmosphere, used to good effect during Swansea's annual Sea Shanty Festival.

On the right in Gloucester Place is a row of refurbished Georgian houses.

Just before Dylan Thomas Square, on the right, is Dylan Thomas Theatre, present home of Swansea's Little Theatre. Dylan was a member of this group in the early 1930's, when they were based in Mumbles. He acted in a number of productions, including Noel Coward's "Hay Fever", and received above-average reviews. He later applied this training in his broadcasting work for the BBC. The Little Theatre has its own exhibition as a tribute to Dylan Thomas

Dylan's presence in the Square is two-fold. He is to be seen gazing across the Square from the colourful mural on the side of the Theatre, and as a solid statue, hands on knees, on which are carved the words '......though I sang in my chains like the sea' from his much-loved poem 'Fern Hill'.

To the left of the statue is the original Pump House, dating back to the time when this was the South Dock area. It is now a restaurant and bar. Close by is a walkway across the dock to the statue of Captain Cat, the blind sea Captain from 'Under Milk Wood', who gazes down towards '... the clippered seas he sailed long ago when his eyes were blue and bright, ...'.

On to Wind Street >>