Swansea’s Castle Square will reopen with two cafe pavilions, one clad in copper and one built from stone, a fountain set flush into the paving for children to run through, and a big screen above a bandstand-style stage.
New images produced for Swansea Council by the scheme’s architects, ACME, show the space in more detail than anything released since the diggers moved in.
They also come with a date. The council says the square is due to reopen in the second half of next year.
That date has moved more than once. When the last set of images was released in September 2025, the council said completion was expected by late 2026.
In June, council leader Rob Stewart told a scrutiny panel that handover was likely to be after the Six Nations, though he said the team were looking at whether the schedule could be advanced. By July the council was pointing to summer 2027.
The practical upshot is that the new screen looks unlikely to be showing the 2027 Six Nations, the question Cllr Dai Jenkins put to the leader in June.
What the images do show is a square barely recognisable from the hard-paved plaza most shoppers remember.
The Copper Pavilion curves around one side of the gardens, its ribbed copper skin wrapping a glazed cafe unit with planting on the roof.
The Stone Pavilion sits opposite, a low cafe building on stone piers beneath a planted roof terrace that the public can walk up to and look back across the square from.
Between them, water jets rise straight out of the paving. Friedrich Ludewig, ACME’s founding director, said the feature would sit at the heart of the gardens.
“A new water feature will occupy the centre of the space inviting play and interaction, set into colourful paving inspired by paintings by Dylan Thomas’s artist friends,” he said.
He said the work now under way would “increase tree coverage, bring more green planting and more room to relax and enjoy performances”, and that the two pavilions would be “built into the landscape, with references to Swansea’s copper smelting history”.
Mr Ludewig also pointed back to what stood here before. “Historically, the site was famous as the location of the Ben Evans Store,” he said. “After the war, it became an open space, initially known as Castle Gardens.”
The poet is claiming another piece of the scheme. The square’s Leaf Boat sculpture, lifted out in January, is heading for the Cwmdonkin Park pond yards from Thomas’s childhood home.
Council leader Rob Stewart said the images gave people something to look forward to. “They showcase a greener, more welcoming city centre destination,” he said.
“They show two striking new cafe-friendly buildings, a copper pavilion and a stone pavilion, alongside a large outdoor screen for events,” he added. “There’s a playful water feature designed to encourage people to spend time in the square.”
He said it was “fantastic to see progress being made on site”.
On site, contractor Knights Brown has finished the excavation and started the foundations, with the council saying utility diversions and material salvage are complete.
Neither pavilion has a tenant yet. In June the council’s regeneration manager Lee Richards told councillors there was significant interest and that a number of local vendors could be good fits, but said the units had not been let and he could not name anyone.
The square has been through this before. It was the site of the Ben Evans department store until the Three Nights’ Blitz of 1941, became the Castle Gardens laid out over the bomb site, then lost them to the 1990s remodelling that gave the square its fountains and amphitheatre steps.
Almost every building around it is changing too. The former Castle Cinema is becoming flats, and Turtle Bay closed in April after ten years overlooking the square.
On Princess Way, ten apartments are planned above the unit where Søstrene Grene opened in June.
The council describes the work as part of a £1bn regeneration programme across the Swansea city centre.
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In the amendments, it shows “Paving – Yorkstone shown as a placemaker following discussions with Council team for adjustments to previously submitted paving pattern. Awaiting final confirmations.” which is a shame because this paving design is so interesting.
Check NMA REPORT CASTLE SQUARE PART 2 in 2025/2094/NMA
With so many empty stores in and around the city centre finding 2 new tenants for the cafés in castle gardens will be hard graft!!!
Then they will be in competition with each other!!!!!