CASTLE SQUARE: First foundations go in for Swansea’s new city centre gardens

The transformation of Swansea’s Castle Square has reached its next stage — with the first foundations of the new Castle Square Gardens now being built.

Diggers moved onto the square in the spring, and the site today is barely recognisable: the fountains, steps and paving of the old square have gone, with the ground dug out to new levels behind bright red hoardings.

Swansea Council says preparation work — including diverting underground utilities and removing and storing materials for reuse — is complete, with main construction now underway and, the contractor says, running in line with the programme.

Public spaces contractor Knights Brown is delivering the scheme, with access maintained for pedestrians and surrounding businesses while it builds.

The council says the finished gardens will bring significantly more green space to the square, along with new seating, a water feature, improved lighting and areas for events — as shown in the design images released last autumn.

Council leader Rob Stewart said it was “great to see the transformation of this important site firmly underway”, adding the council was confident people would enjoy the finished space.

Knights Brown divisional director Tim Waller said the scheme “provides a fond nod to the location’s past as a traditional city centre garden space”.

The design comes from architects ACME, with consultants Spider Projects also working on the scheme.

When we visited the site last month, diggers had just begun reshaping the square — and Mr Stewart said he would love to see a new big screen in place in time for next year’s Six Nations.

That nod to the past runs deep. The square stands on the site of the Ben Evans department store — one of the grandest shops in Wales until it was destroyed in the Three Nights’ Blitz of the Second World War.

The bomb site became the Castle Gardens, the formal lawns and flowerbeds remembered by generations of Swansea shoppers, before the 1990s remodelling swept them away for the hard-paved plaza of recent memory — its amphitheatre steps, fountains and Leaf Boat sculpture finally removed in January as the site was cleared.

And it’s not just the square itself changing — almost every building around it is being reshaped too.

The former Castle Cinema building is being converted into flats and retail units by a housing association. On Castle Street, Turtle Bay closed its doors in April after ten years overlooking the square.

On Princess Way, Søstrene Grene drew queues along Castle Square when it opened last month in the former Zara unit at Castle Quays. Ten new flats are planned for the floors above.

A short walk away on Oxford Street, Y Storfa has opened in the former BHS and been named Wales’ Project of the Year. Next door, M&S closed after 69 years.

Even the building housing the square’s McDonald’s is in line for change, with Welsh Government millions backing plans for a major new flats development at the site.

The works form part of what the council describes as a £1bn regeneration programme across the city centre — and by the time the gardens open in summer 2027, the square they sit in will look out on an almost entirely changed city.