St. Jude's Church, Swansea

Saint Jude’s Parish Church, located on the south side of Terrace Road in Mount Pleasant, Swansea, is a former Anglican church with a history that spans over a century. Designed by E. M. Bruce Vaughan, the present building was constructed between 1913 and 1915 on the site of an earlier church made of galvanized iron, which had been in place since 1899. Saint Jude’s stood as a prominent place of worship until its final service on 8 February 2015, just months before its centenary.

The church was built in the Early English style, characterized by its rock-faced sandstone structure with bathstone dressings and slate roofs topped with crucifix finials. Architecturally, it featured a clerestoried nave and chancel in one, a lean-to north aisle, a gabled south aisle and chapel, a north transept, and a distinctive octagonal bell-turret pinched between the north chapel and north transept. Inside, the church's arcades were marked by circular piers and double-chamfered arches, reflecting a 13th to 14th-century Decorated style, with stained glass windows created by artists such as C. Powell (1920) and Celtic Studios (1949).

Saint Jude's Church, once the mother church for its parish, established Saint Nicholas in Townhill in 1924. In 1937, Saint Nicholas became an independent parish, and both churches served their communities until merging in 2015 as the Benefice of Swansea Saint Nicholas on the Hill and Saint Jude. Afterward, both churches closed. Despite this, Saint Jude’s remains a symbol of early 20th-century church architecture and community heritage in Swansea.