Spring Lecture Series Cities of the British Isles: Swansea
Swansea: Thursday 1st April 2021 at 18.30
Presented by Catrin Saran James
With travel remaining restricted, the Spring lecture series will take a tour of the British Isles. Each lecture will consider key twentieth-century developments in one location, offering a mixture of the familiar and the unexpected. From the 'new city' of Milton Keynes to Dublin and Edinburgh, where new buildings sat alongside historic architecture, we'll explore the modern urban landscape in all its variety.
The destruction of Swansea in the Second World War, after the three nights blitz of February 1941, left a devastated town centre that had lost its heart, soul and architectural character. Following the war a redevelopment plan was undertaken based on pre-war modernist proposals.
Catrin will look at the post war buildings that brought back civic pride to the city centre. She will also discuss the concrete sculptural mural of 1968 on the façade of the Central Clinic in Orchard Street which is currently at risk. The mural was the work of the sculptor Harry Everington when he was Head of Fine Art at Swansea College of Art in the 1960s.
Catrin James is an archivist and artist who works on the post war architecture of South Wales. She created work for the Cultural Olympiad for Wales in 2012.
We’ll send you a Zoom link by email after you book, which will enable you to “join” the event, and we’ll be using the Q&A function to take questions at the end. If you’ve not used Zoom before, clicking on the Zoom link will take you through the set-up process, hopefully simply and smoothly! You should receive an automated link within an hour of booking so please check your spam/junk emails if you haven't received this. Any further problems please contact coordinator@c20society.org.uk.
Members: £3, non-members £5
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The Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244