Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency

Multimillion pound revamp for Mumbles pier

20 March 2008

The iconic Victorian pier and surrounding seafront in the Welsh seaside town of Mumbles is set for a multimillion pound revamp.

Built in 1898, the pier is 835 feet in length, and when it was first opened, it served as the westernmost terminus for the world's first passenger rail service, the Swansea and Mumbles Railway.

Today the pier offers a sweeping vista of Swansea Bay, with Mumbles lighthouse on one side and Port Talbot visible on the other.

Ameco – which has owned the pier since 1937 – is planning to spend £39 million revamping the pier and its environs, building a hotel, exhibition centre and associated facilities, including a new boardwalk linking the pier to Knab Rock.

‘We believe we can ensure the pier's future and create a premier tourist destination that offers stunning panoramic views and do so at no cost to the public purse,’ said Ameco Managing Director John Bollum.

He added, ‘No one wants to see Mumbles pier go the same way as the Mumbles train’.

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