History of

Designed by W.Sutcliffe Marsh, the 835 foot pier opened on May 10th 1898. It had cost £10,000. It was the terminus for the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, the promoter being John Jones Jenkins of the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway.

Amusement Equipment Co. Ltd (AMECO) gained a licence to operate the pier from 1st October 1937, later taking out a lease. They acquired the freehold in 1957.

Sectioned in 1940, the pier was extensively reconstructed in the 1950s, and a landing jetty was added. It officially re-opened on 9th June 1956. A new amusement arcade was built on the pier's frontage in 1966.

AMECO spent between £25,000 and £30,000 per annum on the maintenance and replacement of the steelwork between 1975 and 1985.The pier was closed on 1st October 1987 but re-opened on Good Friday 1988, after £40,000 had been spent during the winter on renewing steelwork near to the entrance.

A new pavilion was built on the landward end in 1998 and incorporates a bar, restaurant, bowling alley, cafe, nightclub and amusements arcade.

On the north side of the pier, an access bridge extends to an RNLI Lifeboat station. The RNLI operate from the pier on a license basis and have a long association with Mumbles and the pier dating back to 1866. But when the next generation of lifeboat comes into service in Mumbles in 3 to 4 years, the current facility will no longer be suitable – the new boat will not fit into the existing building and will not be capable of being launched from the current location at low tide. RNLI's intention was therefore to construct a new lifeboat station to replace the existing facility and the renovation of the Pier was considered to be necessary to secure the long term presence of the RNLI on the site.

However, as the new century dawned, significant weaknesses in the lattice steelwork and hand railings were becoming apparent and some of the side rails and seating areas were virtually rusting away. A large section of the decking at the far end of the pier had to be removed. Restoration work required replacing steel and timber elements from the piles upwards and was estimated to cost in excess of £3m. The pier was not generating sufficient funds to cover the work required and, as a privately owned pier, was not eligible for most public grants.

Most of the funding was therefore proposed to come from AMECO’s ambitious plans to demolish the Pier Hotel and embark on a £39m development project comprising a new hotel, apartments, boardwalks and a family entertainment centre. Funding support was also anticipated from the RNLI and Welsh Assembly grants. The project was supported by a Development Framework document formally approved by Swansea Council. The key theme of this document was the revitalisation of the pier and the redevelopment of the former nightclub building and part of the coastal approach to the Pier. The restoration and redevelopment of the pier was also included as part of the 2007 Swansea Bay Strategy Action Plan.

In June 2010, a public exhibition of the development plans was staged in the pier hotel ballroom and was generally very well received. However, following the submission in September 2010 to Swansea Council for planning approval, opposition began to surface with claims that the new development would spoil the view of Mumbles headland.
In November 2010, the pier owners issued a statement saying that the only way they could afford to restore the Swansea landmark was by developing a hotel and apartments on the foreshore. They said grant funding was not available and it was the "only way" to fund the restoration.

In December 2010, Mr Stanley Bollom, the head of the Bollom family who own the pier, sadly passed away. He had acquired the lease in 1936 along with the Pier Hotel and the famous penny slot attractions.

In March 2011, following worries that the pier might have to close, the owners announced that they would keep the pier open for a further 6 months but that this would exhaust their emergency funds. Then in April 2011, plans for the pier restoration, together with the construction of a new RNLI lifeboat station, were given the green light by Swansea Council. However, this was still dependent on funding from the main headland development. Then in June 2011, Swansea councillors supported the proposal for apartments and a hotel in order to finance the restoration project and in July 2011 the Welsh Assembly Government stated that they would not object to the full scheme. Preliminary work was then able to start in November 2011 and in June 2012 construction of the new Mumbles lifeboat station began.
August saw the arrival of the construction barge towed to the end of the pier, and the following month it was announced that the international estate agent, Savills, had been appointed to promote the Mumbles Pier development.
A fire on the pier in October 2012 damaged part of the decking but the main structure was unaffected. The cause of the fire was not thought to be suspicious.
Work was suspended for a time at the end of November 2012 following an injury to one of the contractors who fell from the pier. Work recommenced following a full H&S investigation.

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