Swansea: Church that survived Nazi bombers celebrates 200 years
A landmark chapel in the centre of Swansea that survived a Nazi bomb is preparing to celebrate its 200th anniversary with special services over Easter.Mount Pleasant chapel is one of the city's most historic buildings and stands on the Kingsway in an area that was largely flattened during the Blitz, when the German Luftwaffe bombed the city in February 1941."When you see all the pictures of the Blitz and all the buildings around the chapel gone, it is amazing that the chapel is still standing" said Clare Sullivan, one of the members.The chapel with Corinthian pillars seats about 800 people.
It cost £4,510 to build, a huge undertaking for the church's 54 members at the time. Swansea was an important industrial town and port, and the early worshippers were probably involved in the copper smelting and refining industry that had transformed Swansea into a major global centre for copper processing. It's nickname was Copperopolis.Pastor Tom Martin said the bombing destroyed the area around the chapel and it was rebuilt after the war.
"We are in the middle of the busy Kingsway in the city centre with lots of modern buildings around us," he said. "Their predecessors didn't survive the blitz, but the Mount did."Today the exterior of the chapel looks very much as it did when it was first built, but the interior had been changed with the pews removed from the ground floor to create an all-purpose open space. On Wednesdays and Saturdays it morphs into a café, explained church elder Jimmy Christie."There was a time a lot of people went past the railings and gates, and wondered perhaps what this wonderful building was," he said. "But now we have a wide pavement outside and we hold our open air café there as well as in the chapel itself. "We have opened the doors and opened the railings up and people are getting to know us."Some of the neighbourhoods surrounding the chapel were amongst the most deprived in the UK," said chapel pastor Dafydd Taylor.
"There's a great need in Swansea, a lot of people with addictions to drugs and alcohol, in and out of prison or who are homeless," he said. "We offer them hope, we have at least 4 members who used to have addiction problems, and we have helped them turn their lives around."
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