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Mumbles in Wales

Thursday, 20 March 2025 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Great Britain / Großbritannien
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Mumbles (Welsh: Mwmbwls) is a district of Swansea, Wales, located on the south-east corner of the unitary authority area. It is also a local government community using the same name. At the 2001 census the population was 16,774, reduced slightly to 16,600 at the 2011 Census. The district is named after the headland of Mumbles, located on its south-east corner.

Three of the bells in All Saints Church once belonged to the Jesuit church of La Compañía (“The Company”) in Santiago, Chile. They seem to have been brought to Mumbles by Aubrey Vivian after the fire of 1863 burnt down the Jesuit church, killing 2,000 people. The family of industrialist Henry Vivian had business connections with the copper mines of Chile.

In 1793, the Mumbles Lighthouse was erected on the outer of the two tidal islands of Mumbles Head. In 1806, the Oystermouth Railway was built between Oystermouth and Swansea with the intention of carrying coal to Swansea. The potential for carrying passengers was soon seen and a horse-drawn railway passenger service was started on 25 March 1807, making it the first such service in the world. It became enormously popular and was commonly called ‘the Mumbles train’. Following the development of the rail service, Mumbles became a popular tourist destination. To capitalise on this, the Mumbles railway was extended and a pier was constructed and opened in 1898 to serve as the new terminus. An RNLI lifeboat slipway was added to the pier in the summer of 1916 and a boathouse was finally built on it in 1922; these remain in use.

On 23 April 1947, the Mumbles lifeboat lost a crew of eight men while attempting to rescue the crew of the Samtampa that had run aground on Sker Point. The Mumbles railway was closed in January 1960 and dismantled – a controversial decision that still resonates in the locality (calls to “bring back the Mumbles train” are still frequently heard and printed in local newspapers).

Soon after it was built in 1898, the end of the Mumbles Pier became home to bandstand concerts and on the landward side was a winter garden, both of which attracted large crowds. It was advertised by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway as ‘the prettiest pier in the Bristol Channel’ and the ‘Mumbles Press’ on 13 April 1911 featured the skating rinks as well as Hanney’s select military band. In the 1950s, a large entertainment centre on the end of the pier included dodgem cars, coconut shies and other fairground attractions. Near the bridge to the lifeboat, two amusement kiosks survived from Edwardian days. The landward side of the pier had a café, with a ‘penny slot arcade’ alongside and a popular dance hall was part of the Pier Hotel. The amusement complex was redeveloped at the landward end of the Mumbles Pier in 1966 and this proved to be a profitable attraction to visitors, resulting in the addition of a new building containing an amusement arcade, restaurant and bowling alley.

The ‘Mumbles Mile’ is a stretch of road in Mumbles once notable for its concentration of pubs. It has long been a popular destination for pub crawls and binge drinking. Famous poet Dylan Thomas was said to have enjoyed many hours at The Mermaid. The ‘Mumbles Mile’ began to decline in popularity during the 1990s because of pressure from the local council and increased competition from Swansea’s night attractions.As of 2025, there are only five pubs on the ‘mile’, whereas there were once upwards of 20.

Read more on visitswanseabay.com – Mumbles, visitwales.com – Mumbles and Wikipedia Mumbles (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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