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It looks like the most unloved, unwanted building in Swansea, and yet it's one of our most significant.

Generations thought of it as a place where they'd go to enjoy a night out, to watch the latest film, or be entertained by some legendary stage names.

And while today The Palace Theatre sits at the top end of High Street, crumbling and slowly being taken over by nature, what it once represented was far different.

The venue threw open its doors in the 18th century, starting life as a traditional music hall in 1888 as the Pavilion Theatre of Varieties.

It was designed by local architect Alfred Bucknall, who also designed Craig Y Nos Castle in the Swansea Valley, of Bucknall and Jennings, and cost just under £10,000.

There were all sorts of acts, not just music, including acrobats, goats and dancing bears. An elephant even performed on the stage after it was lifted in using a piano-hoist.

Things changed in 1892 when it was renamed The Empire and leased to Adelaide Stoll and her son Oswald, who went on to open the new Empire in Oxford Street in 1900.

The legendary Charlie Chaplin appeared on stage there in 1897, a year after the first moving pictures were shown to audiences at the theatre.

By 1901, it became the Palace Theatre of Varieties, and in 1906 the Palace Bioscope.

(Image: South Wales Evening Post archives) (Image: Mirrorpix / NCJ Archive)

In 1912, no longer a theatre but a full-time cinema, it was advertised as the Swansea Popular Picture Hall.

Stage acts were re-introduced in 1923, including Morecambe and Wise, and once again it was the Palace Theatre of Varieties and eventually just part of that name, the Palace, stuck.

The stage was located at the narrow end of the triangular building, squeezed between a frilly, red metal surround called a proscenium arch. This was installed after the theatre went up in smoke in 1949.

Underneath the front of the stage was the band room that used to seat 30 musicians.

There were once Grecian statues that used to stand either side of the tapering stage and above it the original ropes and pulleys that controlled the stage scenery. There were also delicately-patterned balconies of the upper circle and the gods.

From 1952 to 1961, the Maudie Edwards theatre company took up residence there, followed by Swansea Little Theatre and the Merlin Theatre Group in 1960 - it was around this time that Sir Anthony Hopkins trod the boards in the production, 'Have A Cigarette'.

(Image: South Wales Evening Post archives)

From 1961 onwards, the building went through yet more incarnations, including as a bingo hall and gay club.

In 2002, Moonlight Theatre Company's Follies became the first show to be put on there for more than 40 years, by Moonlight Theatre Company, blending history with contemporary performance.

It was put up for sale in 2005, and internationally acclaimed actor Edward Fox arrived in Swansea to spearhead a campaign to save it.

A host of organisations, businesses and individuals gave their backing to the project, but campaigners said at the time they were thwarted by the unrealistic demands of the theatre owners.

In 2009, the Palace was listed in the 2009 Theatre Buildings at Risk Register, which highlights venues that have been abandoned or are suffering neglect. It was also on a short list of 46 which were facing an immediate threat to their future, and were said to be at high risk.

Fast forward five years later, and the building continued be neglected, to the extent where scaffolding had been erected around the building.

(Image: Wales News Service)

(Image: Wales News Service)

The fire service even had to attend to a section of the building which had come loose and was in danger of falling down in May, 2014.

Swansea Council made £75,000 available to the private owners to carry out work on the High Street theatre the same year.

It came as a campaign was launched on Facebook to save the theatre, by thousands who expressed their concerns over the way it was left to rot.

In 2016, work to preserve the grade-two listed building was finally complete, securing it and protecting it from the elements, as well as removing overgrown vegetation.

Three years later, in September 2019, the fears and premonitions of many came true, as its very existence looked in jeopardy when firefighters tackled fires which had been started inside.

Fortunately, the damage to the derelict structure was minor.

The fire brigade were called to the theatre in 2019...

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Following the fire, Swansea Council leader Rob Stewart revealed that the authority had secured a grant of just under £5 million to bring the grade II listed Palace Theatre back from the brink.

It is understood the council will also contribute to the restoration, which will take two to three years.

There will be a mix of retail and offices at the grade two-listed building, plus a new community space.

(Image: Rob Melen)

The council is in discussions with the Welsh Government about the grant funding, and the building owners about the sale.

It is estimated that, once begun, the works will take a maximum of 33 months to complete. However, the council has said the ambition is to achieve completion as soon as practically possible.

The building is one of just two purpose-built music halls left standing in the whole of the UK and remained undamaged by the Blitz that destroyed much of the rest of the city.

It would be a desperate shame if time and a lack of action achieved what the Nazi bombs did not.