SWANSEA: New city centre garden opens in memory of the council officer behind the arena

A new garden has opened in the middle of Swansea city centre, on the walk between the Kingsway and Oxford Street.

Mowbray Yard has trees, planting, benches and a giant mural across the gable end of the building beside it. Swansea Council says it will also be used for pop-up activities and events.

It sits behind 71/72 Kingsway, the office block on the old Oceana site named the UK’s best office building last week.

Named after the officer who helped build the arena

The yard is named after Huw Mowbray, a council officer who died in 2023, aged 59.

Over a long career he helped deliver some of the city’s biggest projects, including Swansea Arena, the Swansea.com Stadium and the Wind Street makeover, the council says.

His daughter Elyse said it was “the greatest honour and privilege to have a space named after our incredible Dad”.

“He was extremely passionate about Swansea, so to have his legacy cemented in this way means so much to us as a family,” she said.

She hoped it would be “a space to relax and reflect and feel connected to Dad for those of us still grieving him”.

The name has a long history in the city. Huw’s father Ron and his grandfather Clyde were both architects, and Elyse called the yard “a real celebration of the Mowbray legacy in Swansea”.

Council leader Cllr Rob Stewart said Huw’s “sudden passing was a great loss to us all”.

He said it was fitting that the space, “close to one of the developments Huw helped deliver, will carry his name”.

An all-women mural team, and a nod to Huw’s love of nature

The mural, Rewilding the City, fills the wall with ferns, lavender, irises, honeycomb and blocks of colour.

It was painted by four south Wales artists: Kelly-Marie Howlett, Rachel Kinchin, Jade Holt and Bridie Taylor.

The commission came from Carmarthen arts organisation Criwdem Celf CIC and Cardiff public art specialists PWSH, with support from Swansea’s Oner Signs.

It’s the second memorial wall this year for the Swansea firm, which painted the giant RFD tribute to the late councillor Robert Francis-Davies on the front wall of St Helen’s in June.

A spokesperson for the mural team said they were “thrilled to have been commissioned as an all-women collaboration”.

The design is “rooted in urban rewilding, Swansea’s biodiversity and Welsh visual culture”, they said, and also “honours the memory of Huw Mowbray, his contribution to Swansea and his passion for biodiversity”.

One of a run of new murals across the city centre

It’s one of several large murals to go up in the city centre this year. The council says new pieces have also appeared at Park Street and Grove Place.

Park Street is where Gareth Lye’s 11-metre cat went up beside the Kardomah in September. That mural is part of the Muriau Mawr trail, which began with a Swans mural on Salubrious Place in July.

£1.36m from the Welsh Government

Work started last November, when the council appointed Horan Construction and said the yard would be finished in spring 2026.

In December the Welsh Government earmarked £1.36m for the yard. The money comes from its Transforming Towns programme.

The council says the yard is part of £1bn of investment in Swansea.