The new Great Hall at Swansea University Bay Campus stands alone in the arrangement of buildings housing the College of Engineering, the School of Management and student accommodation. The whole complex has quite a conservative feel about it, but the Great Hall is very deliberately classical in style.
Is this building and the rest of the campus architecture intended to present such a serious and sober outlook? I suspect it is.Continue reading
My walk this week took me round Swansea University’s new Bay Campus on the seafront along the eastern approach to Swansea. It was a sunny(ish) Saturday morning and the place was fairly quiet. As I strolled through the large open spaces between the buildings I thought “this is very nice and new in the sunshine, but they’re not going to like it much when the bad weather blows in!”
I started my photography of the walk on the seaward side of the campus and found, down on the beach looking out across Continue reading
A recent trip to North Wales gave me the opportunity to explore a little of two potential locations for StillWalks productions. The first one wasn’t planned, but I had time after my scheduled meeting at Colwyn Bay to walk down to the expansive beach. The end of day sun was low and contrast and patterns high on the broken pier.
Walking around Llansteffan Castle in Carmarthenshire was great fun but first . . .
Later this week I will be relaunching and relocating the StillWalks website and blog and must ask all followers who wish to continue receiving their daily dose of images and sound from the StillWalks blog, to click the link on Thursday’s post and the following days to relocate with me to the new website.
Thank you to all my existing and new followers.
Along with this relaunch we will be at The Waterside with publisher Management Learning Resources (MLRUK) to promote the new StillWalks package for organisations and individuals. That’s on 7th April from 10 – 12. Details and directions can be found here at The Waterside.
Now, back to this week’s walk and the murder holes! There were plenty of opportunities to look through walls at the castle which Julie was particularly interested in. Some of these would have been used in the traditional way (for a castle), i.e. shooting enemies with arrows! The most blood curdling, however, were the “murder holes” through which boiling oil would be poured on attackers entering this part of the castle.
The watery, windy weather has returned but it has not stopped this solitary runner on the promenade steps of Swansea Bay. Perhaps she has paused to take in the view, what there is of it!
Click the first thumbnail image below to view my walk this week in sequence – sorry there is no soundscape this week.
Walking back towards the seafront from the marina in Swansea Bay I passed three of the many sculptures situated in the Maritime Quarter. These are three of several weather vane art works for which Robin Campbell was responsible as an architect working with Swansea Council in the ’80s and 90’s. I can remember sculptor and potter, Martin Williams, working on this first piece in the studio next door to mine (see yesterday’s post).
The weather vanes are clearly all still fully operational as the wind direction indicated by each tallied with the others. If the wind seemed calmer in the shelter of the marina on this walk, on my return to the seafront it was again obvious and bringing further murky weather over from across the bay at Mumbles where you can just about make out Mumbles Lighthouse.
The word “recognition” has two senses to it and they are both relevant to this post and my walk through Swansea Marina. Firstly, I recognise, in particular the old pump house on the left, the Seamen’s Chapel (Mission Gallery – see below) on the right and, most significantly to me, the building in which my wife and I had a studio which looked out over the marina as it changed from disused docks to the flourishing Maritime Quarter.
My wife, Ceramic Artist Julie Brunskill, will be Maker in Focus at the Mission Gallery from Tuesday 23rd February – 2nd April. Don’t miss it!
Recognition can also mean an acknowledgement of remembrance and in the photos below you will see black flags flying from some of the boats. Their ragged appearance has a haunting effect in amongst all the masts and rigging. My assumption is that they were there in recognition of David Bowie’s death a week earlier. That was just over a month ago now – R.I.P. David Bowie, I have enjoyed your music throughout my life.
My walk this week takes me through Swansea’s Martime Quarter once more There were several gatherings of birds, all apparently waiting for something. They had look-outs making use of the security cameras and other high points around the docks and locks of the marina, but the misty weather was significantly limiting visibility.
Looking inland towards Kilvey Hill, but without being able to see it, a riverside apartment block was also partly obscured by the sand dunes at the top of the beach. None of the architecture of the SA1 area could be clearly seen but the mist and dampness gave a distinctive atmosphere to the place and so I enjoyed doing my photography and having my walk in spite of the weather.
