Swansea Deaf And Dumb School

Deaf And Dumb School 1896
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I was born and bred in the Mount Pleasant area of Swansea, in which the D&D Institute was based.  My schooling was Terrace Road infants & juniors.  Lots of football in the street, Cwmdonkin Park and playing in and around the quarry off the Promenade, that overlooked the Institute.  The quarry was wild, with steep drops and the cause of many mishaps.  A lad of my age was the son of the caretaker at the Institute and a group of us kids frequently used to wander the corridors of the school, which was a dark, auspicious and sprawling affair, very much reminiscent of the Victorian building I subsequently learned it to be.  Dropping out of the back of the Institute's grounds, it was possible to slide down a slope, peppered with trees and foliage, until appearing down the bottom at railings overlooking Heathfield.  I don't know why, but railings in those days always seemed to have convenient gaps - great for escape in games of tag!  More often or not we simply played games in the Institute yard, although on occasions we'd venture into the gymnasium building.  This was fitted-out with the usual apparatus and one infamous visit resulted in a broken leg for one of our mates, who swung on one of the ropes straight into a vaulting horse... We were 8 at the time and the predictable aftermath was a stern ticking off from respective parents.  We continued to routinely use the school while the caretaker's son was living there, up to about 1972.  I guess it must have been converted to flats early in the next decade (?).  I moved away from Swansea in 1980, although I'm still a regular visitor to that area (my sister owns our original family house in Rhondda Street).  The Promenade quarry looks a much smaller expanse now, although still resolutely wild.

The Institute is the Haunted House-type building at the top of the postcard/photo, overlooking the Swansea town centre.  The arches on the right of the street are the front of the Albert Hall cinema, which converted to a Bingo Hall in the late 70s/early 80s.  The photographer is standing in Craddock Street; to his/her right would be a little road leading to the entrance to Dynevor Senior Comprehensive School, where I stayed on for my A levels.  Dynevor School is also now closed, although the building itself is still present in some partial, adapted form.