2004 March 16

New Dynevor

At the Association’s A.G.M. on Tuesday 16th March 2004 Professor David Warner, Principal and Chief Executive of the Swansea Institute, presented the Institute’s plans for the Dynevor site. Those present were delighted to hear that the future of the site is assured. It will continue to bear the Dynevor name and will be developed, over the coming three years, into the Dynevor School of Art and Design within the Swansea Institute.

Plans and designs for the buildings were circulated which illustrated a new prestigious educational institution in which the old Dynevor Place and De la Beche wings will be linked by a modern four storey building. The new building will occupy the site of the corner tower that was destroyed in the 1941 blitz. In the next three years the existing buildings will be completely refurbished. Even the old ‘Fives’ courts and Toilet ‘complex’ will be ‘recycled’ and pressed into service as furnaces and photographic units for the new school.

The new development is in keeping with the Institutes plans to create an ‘in-town’ campus consisting of the former buildings of the old Central Police Station (for student accommodation), the adjoining Reference Library Buildings and the former B.B.C. buildings on Alexandra Road along with the existing Mount Pleasant buildings. The tranfer of the existing School of Art and Design from the Townhill campus will release buildings for the planned transfer of the Education Faculty from the University of Wales, Swansea. The Townhill campus will then revert to its original educational function when it was known as the Swansea Training College.

One final note of significance to the Association was the fact the Professor Warner confirmed that our Honour Boards will be welcomed in the new site and, to further strengthen the link with the old school, he stated that he was seeking suggestions for the naming certain of the classrooms and practical rooms after Dy’vorian pupils, headmasters and teachers. There will, no doubt, be further discussions on this latter point.