Mumbles Pier Had A Nudist Colony 🤭

Mumbles Pier has undergone plenty of changes since it first opened to the public way back in 1898, drawing thousands of visitors to Swansea's most famous seaside spot.

This week, read about some of the strange and wonderful attractions that once called Mumbles Pier home, and the stories behind them.

Catch you on Sunday! Andrew

The Camera Obscura

Tucked beside the pier entrance in a small hexagonal tower stood one of Mumbles Pier's most fascinating Victorian attractions - a camera obscura that projected live views of Swansea Bay onto a screen using rotating mirrors.

For just one penny, visitors could step inside and marvel at what the signs promised as "Beautiful Scenery, Real Living Pictures" and "Grand Coloured Scenery." The revolving camera captured the bay and surrounding coastline, creating moving images that must have seemed magical in an era before television.

This unique attraction was already drawing crowds by 1905, as shown in postcards from the time.

The Helter Skelter

One of Mumbles Pier's most iconic attractions was its towering helter skelter (two of which are pictured above), where visitors grabbed a heavy, scratchy mat and hauled it up the spiral staircase for the thrilling ride down.

In May 1987, the helter skelter became the unlikely venue for an epic fundraising challenge. The Lord Mayor of Swansea, Councillor Lilian Hopkin, kicked off a sponsored 24-hour sliding marathon to raise money for the Coombe Cheshire Home in Carmarthen.

Fourteen local teams took it in shifts to keep the sliding going around the clock, with the Lord Mayor herself "coming down to earth with a bump" to start the event.

Norman, the Gorilla Who Became Nansi

Norman was a beloved 10ft fibreglass gorilla mascot who stood proudly on Mumbles Pier with swings attached to his arms.

But in 1999, his life took a dramatic turn when four balaclava-wearing thieves dressed in military clothing arrived with ropes and scaffolding poles, bundled him into a boat, and sailed away into the night. Photos were mysteriously sent from different locations as the only clues to his whereabouts.

When Norman was eventually tracked down to a strip club in Brighton on the south coast of England and returned to Mumbles, visitors got quite a shock - he'd undergone a complete makeover with breasts (made from firemen’s helmets) and a bikini, and was now known as Nansi. Police called it "monkey business" and saw the funny side of the whole escapade.

After being accidentally damaged during repair work to the pier in 2020, Norman/Nansi was rescued by Dan Faull, owner of local furniture store, Chunk Monkey.

After careful repair and refurbishment, the male-again monkey, re-named Chunk became the store’s mascot. You can catch it seen outside its shop on Western Street in the city centre and at various events throughout the year.

The "Nudist Colony"

One of Mumbles Pier's cheekiest attractions was the so-called "Nudist Colony" - a peep show housed in a large brown box that promised visitors a glimpse of something rather risqué for just a penny.

"You put a penny in, peeped through a viewer and what you saw was a colony of ants scurrying around. My father fed them with honey," recalled Dexter Ford, whose family ran the pier's amusements for decades, and who chatted to the Evening Post about his memories of the pier back in February 1996.

The “nudist colony” and other quirky attractions may be long gone, but they're part of what made Mumbles Pier such a special place for so many - and continues to do so today.

Did you experience any of these long-lost Mumbles Pier attractions? Let me know!

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