Swansea Market situated in the heart of

Swansea city centre 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 Centr ...

is the largest indoor market in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The market is covered by a steel arched portal frame roof clad in steel and glass. The current market was built in 1959-1960 by

Percy Thomas Sir Percy Edward Thomas OBE (13 September 1883 – 19 August 1969) was an Anglo-Welsh architect who worked in Wales for the majority of his life. He was twice RIBA president (1935–37 and 1943–46). Biography Percy Edward Thomas was born on ...

. Adjoining the market is the

Quadrant Shopping Centre The Quadrant Shopping Centre is the principal under-cover shopping centre in Swansea, Wales. The centre opened in 1979. From the 1980s to 2019 it was home to the Swansea Devil, a controversial carved wooden statue of the Devil. The centre and ...

History

The current market building is the second market to be built at the site in 200 years. There has been a covered market in Swansea since 1652, when a market was held in a building near the castle. The previous market on this site had existed since 1894 and was destroyed during the Swansea Blitz in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The first dedicated market building was built in 1774 at the top of Wind Street. That consisted of a roof supported by pillars - it had no external walls. A new market called the New Market opened in 1830 which was a walled structure with a roof lining the walls. The interior market space was open to the elements. The open walled structure was replaced with a new red brick building which opened on 22 June 1897. The new building was entirely roofed and by December 1897, electric lighting had been introduced. This building was hit during the Luftwaffe bombing raids in 1941 destroying the roof and the interior of the building. During the rest of the 1940s and 1950s, the market was held as an outdoor market at site where the market building once stood. The replacement market opened in 1961, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2011.Rebecca Jones (13 April 2013
"City centre boost as Swansea Market set for £1m roof revamp"
''South Wales Evening Post''. Retrieved 2014-08-12.

Facilities

The market includes fruit and vegetable stalls, butchers, cafes, fast food, fishmongers and clothes stalls. There are also a number of stalls selling local and continental delicacies, such as continental cheeses, Welsh laverbread, Penclawdd cockles,

Gower Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...

Saltmarsh lamb and Welsh Black

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

.Colin Pressdee (3 June 2007
"Wales for Foodies"
''The Observer''. Retrieved 2014-08-12. In 2013 the market roof was due for a £1 million modernisation consisting of new roofing sheets and lighting and possibly new solar power generating roofing panels. File:Swansea Market2.jpg, File:Swansea Market4.jpg, File:Swansea Market5.jpg,

References

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External links

Swansea Market (official site)SwanseaHeritage.net Swansea Market
Buildings and structures in Swansea Retail markets in Wales Shopping in Swansea Buildings and structures completed in 1960 Food markets in the United Kingdom