Mount Pleasant, Swansea facts for kids
Mount Pleasant is a neighborhood in Swansea, Wales. It's a suburban area located just north of the city center. The main road, also called Mount Pleasant, connects the city center to the Townhill and Mayhill areas further north. This neighborhood is part of the Castle ward. In recent years, more students have moved to Mount Pleasant because of the university campus here.
Mount Pleasant has different types of homes. To the north, you'll find terraced houses, which are rows of houses joined together. On the southern slopes, there are larger semi-detached houses, which means two houses are joined. The Mount Pleasant Estate, built around 1900, has many terraced houses.
Constitution Hill is one of Swansea's steepest roads. It's a cobbled street that leads up to Mount Pleasant from the city center. This street was even featured in the film Twin Town! A long time ago, in the early 1900s, there was a special railway called the Swansea Constitution Hill Incline Railway that went up and down the hill. Constitution Hill also helps mark the boundary between the Castle and Uplands areas.
Several important roads cross the southern part of Mount Pleasant. These include Mansell Street, De La Beche Street, Grove Place, and Alexandra Road. Along these roads, you'll find places like Swansea Magistrates' Court, Swansea Central police station, the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, the old Swansea Central Library, and a building for the university's arts programs. Alexandra Road is a special area known for its old buildings, built between the late 1800s and early 1900s. It also has many shops.
History of Mount Pleasant
The road that goes from High Street up to Mount Pleasant was once called Gibbet Hill. It was renamed North Hill Road in 1902. Old records show that Gibbet Hill was a historical place where important punishments took place in the Middle Ages.
A workhouse opened in Mount Pleasant in 1862. A workhouse was a place where poor people could live and work. By 1895, it housed 584 people. This building later became Tawe Lodge and then Mount Pleasant Hospital in 1929. The hospital closed in 1995 and was turned into homes.
In 1853, Swansea Grammar School for Boys moved to a new building on Mount Pleasant. The school shared its site with the Swansea Intermediate and Technical School for Boys starting in 1895. During World War II, much of the school was damaged by bombs. The Grammar School then moved to the Sketty area in 1952 and became Bishop Gore Grammar School. The Technical College stayed and later became part of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. The university closed its main Mount Pleasant campus in 2018. However, the Arts faculty, Swansea College of Arts, is still in Mount Pleasant on Alexandra Road. A new building for it opened in 2015.
Terrace Road, which is off Mount Pleasant, has two important buildings. There's a Primary School that opened in 1888 and has about 300 students. St Jude's Church also opened here in 1915, but it closed in 2015.
Mount Pleasant Baptist Church is on Kingsway, a busy road in the city. It was built in 1825. This church is one of the few important buildings in the city center that survived the bombing during the Swansea Blitz in World War II.
