Inside Swansea's abandoned Manselton School: new photos

Silver Star of the Week stars still carry pupils’ handwritten names. Teachers’ name plates are still pinned to a classroom door. A whiteboard still lists the staff’s final packing-up jobs: collect the iPads, send the letters home, pack the felt pens and sellotape.

New photographs from inside the former Manselton School show a building frozen at the moment the last pupils walked out a decade ago, and falling apart around everything they left behind.

The images were published this week by B&R Urban Explorers UK, whose photographs of Swansea’s abandoned Mount Pleasant Technical College were featured by Swansea Bay News earlier this month.

A fallen Manselton Primary School sign lying on a debris-covered parquet floor inside the abandoned school — The school’s own sign lies on the parquet floor of the hall. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Peeling blue classroom door with smashed wired glass and rainbow name plates for three teachers — The school’s own sign lies on the parquet floor of the hall. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

They show collapsed ceilings, staircases buried in fallen plaster, a wrecked kitchen and classroom walls where children’s artwork and Welsh-language displays are still fixed in place.

The school’s own sign lies face-up on the parquet floor of the hall. The school piano is smashed in a corner. Pigeons have the run of the upper floors.

On one battered blue door, its wired glass smashed through, the name plates for Mrs Wilkinson, Mrs Short and Mrs Cater still sit in their rainbow frames.

The honours boards that survived more than a century

Manselton Girls' School honours board listing scholarship winners from 1914 to 1925 in gilt lettering, surrounded by peeling paint — The Manselton Girls’ School honours board records scholarship winners from 1914 to 1925. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Manselton Girls' School honours board with scholarship winners for 1926 and 1927 and empty columns, above a doorway with peeling paint — The Manselton Girls’ School honours board records scholarship winners from 1914 to 1925. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

The explorers said the most fascinating discovery was the original Manselton Girls’ School honours boards, still hanging above the doorways more than a century after they were painted.

The boards record scholarship winners year by year from 1914 to 1927, dozens of names in gilt lettering, from the era when the building’s first floor served as a girls’ school.

“Even as the plaster falls away around them, these beautiful boards continue to preserve a piece of Swansea’s educational history,” the group said.

The explorers said it was always sad to see places like this deteriorate, describing schools as places “where friendships are made, futures begin, and communities grow”. The group said it takes nothing but photographs and leaves nothing but footprints.

Classroom whiteboard with handwritten packing-up notes next to a Victorian fireplace and a Word Wall display in a derelict classroom — The staff’s final packing-up jobs are still written on a classroom whiteboard, beside one of the building’s original fireplaces. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Blue peeling classroom door covered in colourful attendance tally sheets with a school rights poster — The staff’s final packing-up jobs are still written on a classroom whiteboard, beside one of the building’s original fireplaces. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Large empty school hall with arched concrete roof beams, debris across the floor and blue classroom doors along the walls — One of the halls, with its arched roof beams, stripped by time and vandals. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Pigeons flying beneath the vaulted ceiling of a derelict tiered school hall covered in droppings — One of the halls, with its arched roof beams, stripped by time and vandals. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

A school built for 1,249 children

Manselton School opened in January 1902, built for the Manselton School Board on the large site between Manor Road and Cecil Street, and designed to hold 1,249 children across three floors: infants on the ground floor, girls on the first and boys on the second.

The Jacobethan-style building, with its stone stair turrets and miniature cupolas, has been Grade II listed since 1987. Cadw’s listing covers both the main school and its attached lodge block on Cecil Street.

Manselton Primary closed in 2012, when it merged with Cwmbwrla Primary to form Burlais Primary School, and the new school’s displays still hang alongside Manselton’s own.

Burlais taught its pupils across the two ageing sites until its £8.2m new building opened at Cwmbwrla Park in September 2015. The Manor Road building has stood empty ever since, and was later sold by Swansea Council.

Star of the Week display board with silver hand-cut stars carrying pupils' names in a derelict school — Star of the Week awards, with pupils’ handwritten names, still hang on a display board. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Seren yr Wythnos star of the week display board with silver stars in a derelict Welsh school — Star of the Week awards, with pupils’ handwritten names, still hang on a display board. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Dydd Gwyl Dewi St David's Day display with children's Welsh-language work and rosettes on a blue board — Children’s St David’s Day work, with first and second rosettes still attached. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Colourful painted shields in the upper glazing of a school partition with smashed lower panes — Children’s St David’s Day work, with first and second rosettes still attached. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Derelict classroom with Magical Punctuation wall display, collapsed ceiling tiles and insulation hanging down — A ‘Magical Punctuation’ display survives in a classroom where the ceiling is falling in. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Crafty Kids classroom display with children's paintings on a blue board surrounded by flaking paint — A ‘Magical Punctuation’ display survives in a classroom where the ceiling is falling in. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Police called as owners promise to secure the building

The photographs emerged as Cwmbwrla ward councillor Peter Black revealed a string of recent complaints about intruders in the building.

The Liberal Democrat councillor, who has represented the ward since 1984, said the complaints had been referred to the police.

Cllr Black said a council environment officer had been in touch with one of the building’s owners on residents’ behalf, and the owner had confirmed he would secure the building. The officer was due to visit the site to photograph the access points so the work could be arranged.

Fairy-decorated classroom welcome sign and bilingual class sign on a cobwebbed blue door — A classroom welcome sign, now behind cobwebs. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

Staff noticeboard marked Hysbysfwrdd with curling notices and leaflets still pinned in a derelict school corridor — A classroom welcome sign, now behind cobwebs. (Image: B&R Urban Explorers UK)

The owners are still working through the planning process for the building’s redevelopment, he said, noting that as a large listed building there were “quite a few layers to any planning application”.

Cllr Black said the owners had recently completed an ecological survey and met the council’s conservation officer in planning to scope out what would be needed.

The most recent publicly consulted proposals for the site, submitted in 2023 by Eton Property Group, sought to convert the main building into 51 flats, with a further eight flats and a shop in a new outbuilding, four houses at the rear and parking for 62 cars.