Street has a more respectable past

AS A Swansea person born and bred, and whose memory now extends over quite some decades, perhaps I might be allowed some space to add to the article on the situation in Swansea’s High Street district (“Notorious street where ‘pimps fight over best spot for sex workers’”, Western Mail, April 15).

Firstly, a short history lesson: in mid Victorian times the area around High Street railway station had a very unsavoury reputation, but slum clearance and the siting of the central police station in nearby Alexandra Road did much to change its character for the better.

Thus by the start of the 20th century it had become, if a not very pretty locality, it was at least a respectable one.

Let us now fast forward to a period about which I have direct knowledge, namely the years after World War Two. At that time the High Street area next to the railway station was a popular and bustling locality with shops, thriving cafes (usually Italian owned and operated), the “posh” Mackworth hotel and the shopping arcade extending from High Street to Orchard Street and which included the well-known Snell’s music shop. In those days the buses which stopped outside the station discharged many passengers at that point in order for them to walk down the rest of High Street and view the shops.

In addition, the policeman on traffic duty at the crossroad in those days did more than direct the traffic; he was also a means of enforcing orderly behaviour in the immediate vicinity.

All this changed as the millennium approached. While the Quadrant shopping complex, which is indeed an asset in rainy Swansea, was developed as the city’s premier shopping facility, High Street was left to fend for itself, with disastrous consequences. In short, High Street around the railway station has surely become the most depressing and unpleasant district within Swansea city centre. One sympathises with those businesses which are struggling to survive.

On a slightly more optimistic note, it appears that at long last the powers that be do appear to be making an effort to improve the situation, although one suspects that their main priorities still lie elsewhere.

Certainly High Street, and the city as a whole, deserve better than what is there at present.

E Williams Morriston, Swansea