Cwmdonkin Park is a well-preserved Victorian urban public park of 1874. It retains much of its original layout and has historical associations with Dylan Thomas.

The park is medium-sized (13 acres), on land which was then on the western edge of Swansea but now situated in the residential area of Uplands to the west of the city centre. It is elongated east by west and lies on a south-facing slope, the northern end falling away steeply to a more level central area. Both layout and planting were informal in character, with areas of ornamental tree and shrub planting, open lawns, and sports facilities - tennis courts, pavilion and bowling green. The main entrance is off Penlan Crescent, where there is a lodge (no.70 Penlan Cresc.), opening onto an axial path through the park.
The narrow winding paths at the west end of the park are shown on the 1878 Ordnance Survey map, but the wall and archway were subsequent additions as they are not shown. The park was much loved by the poet Dylan Thomas, whose poem ‘The hunchback in the park’ was written about Cwmdonkin.

While the 1878 layout is largely unchanged - most of the original paths survive today, although their surfaces have mostly been replaced by tarmac - some original features have gone. A reservoir in the south-east corner treated as an ornamental feature with a path running all the way around it, has since been filled in to form a play area. The bandstand, an octagonal building in a lawn with a gravel path around it and a later feature, has also gone. Informal planting led to boundary tree and shrub belts and borders, an area of woodland in the centre of the south side, and the beginnings of the wooded bank along the north side.

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)48(SWA).
Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map of Glamorgan, XXiii.8 (1899).

RCAHMW, 8 July 2022

Site Record

Cwmdonkin Park, Swansea