One Sketch #64) Urban Sketching in Swansea

Although not every building
Is of very great renown
There's much to see
And much to sketch
In our ugly, lovely town.

Bank holiday Monday, and having returned from visiting my parents in Worthing I was itching to get out and about with my sketchbook again. I bought a new pack of pens, and was champing at the bit. Beautiful weather in Swansea today, and now that I'm sitting back in the house I'm feeling a bit burned again.

One Sketch #63) Waterstone's Swansea

A real Aladdin's cave indeed
For those who dream
And those who read

Yes, this imposing branch of Waterstone's is in fact the Grade II listed former Carlton Cinema, originally opened in 1914, and closed as a cinema in 1977.  I moved to South Wales in 1986, and it would be several years after that that the building would reopen as a branc of Waterstones. The original ornate spiral staircase has been preserved, but everything else of the cinema interior has long gone, sadly.

One Sketch #62) Saturday 26th May, Grand Theatre, Swansea

I could've been upon the stage
If Life had turned a different page
It's too late now
So blame my age.

Swansea's Grand Theatre - originally opened in 1897, so Victorian, if only just. It was bought outright by Swansea council in a rare act of foresight in the 1970s, and is still owned and operated by the council today.

One Sketch #61) Lazerzone, Swansea

Laser fighting's not for me
It's really not my cup of tea
I find activities like this
Bring out my latent pacifist.


As an end of course treat I accompanied a group of pupils to Lazerzone in Swansea. Lazerzone, as the name suggests is a place where kids get to shoot each other with Lasers. Rather than slicing each other to pieces, all this does is set off sensors on their vests which register hits and convert to points. I'm sure that you know the sort of thing. What makes Lazerzone interesting to me is that it takes place in the building of what was previously the Castle Cinema, and indeed, the rear of the building, sketched here, still has the castle cinema sign on it.

One Sketch #60) Old Hospital Bed

My tonsils gave me constant gyp
The Doctor said, "Let's get a grip,
It's time that you were sent, old Scout
To hospital to whip them out
I wasn't brave, just sad and glum
And made a fuss, and cried for mum.

One of my classes had to produce a piece of autobiographical writing for an assessment, with the them being a time that you learned a valuable lesson. I wrote one as an example, telling of how , when I was 8 or 9, I had to go into a grim old Edwardian hospital in Ealing to have my tonsils out. Horrible as the place was, the anticipation of having my tonsils out was far worse than it actually happening.

One Sketch #59) Victorian Pillar box (Weds 23rd)

A wonderful thing is a pillarbox
It takes a long time just to fill a box
Whatever its size
I think you'd be wise
To admit that a mail box is still a box.

Not sure what possessed me to go for this very early Victorian pillar box, but I like it. I think that it's well known that the first UK pillar boxes were the brainchild of a certain Mr. Anthony Trollope, far better known probably for the huge number of novels he wrote, including the excellent Barchester and Palliser novels. The novels, sadly, are no longer widely read. The pillarboxes, though, show every sign of being an important part of British life for the foreseeable future, email notwithstanding.

One Sketch #58) Bela Lugosi as Dracula

There once was an actor called Bela
A frankly quite sinister feller
I'd not be surprised
To learn he resides
In a coffin he kept in his cellar

At work today I have two classes currently writing their own gothic horror stories as an end of unit assessment. So old red eyes seemed an obvious choice. I think I've made his face too long - to me he seems to have more than a touch of the John Travoltas with a dash of Prince Charles thrown in.