Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
11731
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
31/07/1991
Date of Amendment
04/09/2024
Name of Property
Mumbles Pier
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Swansea
Community
Mumbles
Town
Locality
Mumbles Head
Easting
263123
Northing
187431
Street Side
Location
Sited just W of Mumbles Head; pointing NE across Swansea Bay.
Description
Broad Class
Maritime
Period
History
Built in 1897-8 by W Sutcliffe Marsh, engineer and Mayoh and Haley, contractors. The ironwork was supplied by Widnes Foundry Co. The pier was breached during World War II as an anti-invasion measure, and was re-opened with a new landing stage in 1956. Much of the substructure lattice was replaced at this time. The present entrance is an addition, replacing the original turnstile.
The pier was the terminus for the Swansea & Mumbles Railway which had its origins as the first regular passenger rail service in the world. In 1865 the Llanelly Railway obtained permission to build a Mumbles branch and pier but it was never completed. The promoter of the existing pier was Sir John Jones Jenkins of the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway. The Act authorising its construction was passed in 1889, work began in 1892 and the pier was opened on 10 May 1898. Mumbles Pier quickly became a very popular place of recreation for Victorian and Edwardian society.
A lifeboat slipway was added to the north of the pier in 1916, reach by a lattice walkway, and the station boathouse was built in 1922.
A new RNLI Lifeboat Station and slipway located at the seaward end of the Pier was opened in 2014. Substructure lattice replaced with curved plate girders in 2023-4.
Exterior
A pier 255m long built on a sub-structure of cast-iron piles below a deck originally carried on steel-framed lattice girders, now curved plate girders. The deck is laid with planks and has a cast iron parapet with open foliage panels. On each side are 3 refuges, of which the larger pair at the seaward end originally housed pavilions. At the seaward end the pier broadens (originally with a bandstand in the centre) with benches around the edges, the backs of which have cast iron intertwined dolphins. In the centre is a row of iron fluted gas lamps cast by Revo of Tipton. On the S side of the entrance the parapet continues on concrete posts and terminates in concrete steps to the foreshore. At the seaward end is a lower landing stage for pleasure steamers. It stands on timber posts and was rebuilt in 1956.
Midway along the N side of the pier is a lattice girder walkway to the old lifeboat station.
Interior
Reason for designation
Listed principally for its special interest as one of only 6 iron piers to survive in Wales, of which this is the third longest.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
Export