[SWLUG] Meeting tonight - any chance of a lift?

[Telsa Gwynne]

On Mon, Nov 07, 2005 at 01:49:51PM +0000 or thereabouts, Rhys Hardwick wrote:
> Hey guys,
> 
> I am a new member of this group, as some of you may know.  I am currently
> staying in halls at Swansea University (Singleton Park), and
> unfortunately have no car.
> 
> I was wondering if there is any easy way to get to and from Wind Street
> from here?  Or, if anyone was passing and could possibly give me a lift.

Is your problem that you don't know which one is Wind Street, 
or that you don't know how to get there? 

Typing "Swansea" into http://maps.google.co.uk/ and going to a 
fairly high magnification will show you where Wind Street is. 
It is the continuation of the High Street (the one with the 
railway station) which reaches the coast road opposite the marina.
It's full of building sites at the southern end. 

People coming into Swansea by car are actually quite unlikely
to be just passing the university unless they are coming from
the Mumbles or Gower. Always possible, but I don't think anyone
does. 

So the obvious way to get most of the way there is the bus, which
runs direct from campus to the Quadrant bus station. 

In the daytime, you would then go through the Quadrant shopping
centre to Swansea market, then through the market to St Mary's
Square (with the church), then cut through the little alley down
the side of the Cross Keys Inn. This sounds complicated, but is 
a fairly direct route. 

In the evening, alas, the Quadrant shopping centre and the market
are shut, and the first obvious alternative goes through a lot
of badly-lit areas, which is not fun when you are trying to read
street names and work out where you went wrong.

The next one is to brave the coast road and a really unpleasant
junction of roads which is a pain to cross. I can't really describe
it by email, unfortunately, so that leaves the long way round which 
is at least possible to follow directions on. 

The clearest way, if you know Swansea landmarks at all, is to 
come out of the Quadrant bus station to the north. This is a 
tiny road with Wikinsons on your left and a travel centre on
your right. There are two roads which cross this road. Cross
right across it, I mean. The first one (the one Wikinsons and the
travel centre are corners of), I forget. The second is Oxford Street. 
Get to Oxford Street and turn right along it. Less than five minutes' 
walk should see you pass Marks and Spencer on your left and the 
Market on your right, and then you will reach Castle Square (big 
amphitheatre-like affair with intermittently-on fountains. And 
pieces of castle). Assuming you have entered Castle Square from 
Oxford Street, there is a lower pool and an upper pool with a giant 
leaf sculpture celebrating Dylan Thomas further away. Between this
higher-up pool with the leaf and the castle is a road. This road is 
High Street if you turn left along it and Wind Street if you turn 
right along it. 

Turn right along it.  

Wind Street permits travel on random nights of the week and is
pedestrian-only on others. I think it depends whether anyone has
the key to the bollards to keep the traffic out. 

Anyway, it curves round to the left and a lot of the buildings 
are prettier than central Swansea in general. There's a really 
big building which looks like an ex-bank about halfway down on 
the right. It is an ex-band (Lloyds, I think) and is called the 
Bank Statement. Big and towering and dark. After this there is 
a tiny roofed little alleyway also on the right called Salubrious 
Passage with a pillar in its entrance and a newsagent on its corner. 

The No Sign Inn is right between these two. There's a lot
of pale blue in its paintwork at the front. It's a very narrow
pub that goes a long way back. (In fact, if you were to go 
down that little alleyway past some office or other, you'd
come to the back of the No Sign with another entrance there.)

The last time we were there, they were putting the finishing
touches to making it go even further back, so I can't predict
where people will be sitting. Particularly as I shall not be
there. Boo hiss.

Any other night, I could meet people off the bus, but I am in
Cardiff instead (however, on the night of the Carmarthen meeting,
I shall be in Swansea. Erm..).

I don't know when the last buses to campus go, but I don't think 
you will get stuck in town unless you leave at kicking-out time 
(most people leave earlier) and then get lost on Oxford Street. 
Town to campus is infamously walkable anyway, especially if you go 
via St Helens Road, home of many take-outs and restaurants. 

> Also, what sort of time do people usually arrive?

Some people try to arrive 7-7.30pm; others rather later.
I think most people leave around 10-10.30. 

Sorry this is so wordy. There are certainly ways which are
quicker to get from the Quadrant to Wind Street. But this is
probably the easiest to describe in words. 

Telsa