It’s now almost 200 years since the world’s first ever passenger railway dropped thrilled tourists off at Mumbles; a horse-drawn carriage had pulled them across new-fangled ‘rails’ all the way from Swansea. As exiting as this must have been, these early rail travellers are sure to have a felt a twinge of disappointment upon arrival at Mumbles Beach, as it would have been immediately obvious that the area had no entertainment complex.

Shamefully, it would take more than ninety years for this to be put right; Mumbles Pier eventually opened in 1898, constructed specifically as a terminus for the Swansea to Mumbles Railway. The Pier Hotel was built opposite at the same time.

The railway closed decades ago, but the pier still attracts many visitors. Some are here to visit the spot where Sir Harry Secombe met his wife in 1946, at a dance on the pier. Others are hoping for a chance glimpse of Catherine Zeta-Jones and hubby Michael Douglas, who have had their own toff’s mansion built right here in Mumbles. Others still are here for the ‘Mumbles Mile’, a fantastically compressed stretch of assorted juicers and watering-holes – sadly now down to sixteen boozers, from a high of twenty-two.

Although not part of the ‘Mumbles Mile’, the folks at Mumbles Pier can satisfy all your drinking needs, with a bar, a nightclub and a licenced café. Background music in the café is provided by an intimidating robot piano that plays Beatles songs, and comes recommended as a ‘brilliant’ must-see by TV’s Timmy Mallet. And trivia hounds, take note: the servery counter in the café has been created from granite, to match the rocky outcrop of Mumbles Head.

As with many of Britain’s piers, there is almost as much fun to be had underneath the pier as there is on top of it. Rook pools teeming with marine life are plentiful here, although those looking for something different are advised to check out the sewer pipe that runs diagonally under the pier – it’s a magnet for triggerfish, and has many attractive growths of ‘Dead Men’s Fingers’, otherwise known as Alcyonium digitatum.

In 1998, the Swansea Brewing Company concocted a new beer known as the ‘Pierhead Special’ to commemorate the pier’s centenary. The following summer, a ten-foot fibreglass gorilla was unbolted from the pier and tossed into the sea during the early hours of the morning, a callous act which some folks feel may well be partially attributable to the SBC’s heady 6% brew, which encourages people to get dangerously drunk while thinking about the pier.

Last Words

The fibreglass gorilla was eventually replaced. Inexplicably, it now has female breasts and wears a red bikini.