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Dylan Thomas Welsh Homes

Five Cwmdonkin Drive, The Boat House Laugharne Dylan Thomas's Homes

Oct 27, 2008 John Howe

There are two homes associated with Dylan thomas his Swansea birthplace and his Laugharne retreat, both are open to visitors and five Cwmdonkin Drive to paying guests.

The Edwardian semi-detached villa, 5 Cwmdonkin Drive in Swansea has recently undergone renovations of a different kind. The birthplace of one of Wales’s most famous poets and playwrights it seems as if the house has had a Wellsian make over and teleported back to the time of the start of the First World War. On the 27th of October 1914, in the first floor front bedroom of 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea a future master of 20th century poetry and prose was born.

Swansea Uplands

It was in this comfortable middle class home in a comfortable middle class inner suburb of Swansea’s Uplands, that Dylan Thomas’s writing style was shaped and to where he periodically returned to stay until his parents moved out in the late 1930s. Not only did the house and family home shape his writing style, it was there that he wrote over one third of his published work, indeed half his poems were written here. Not including those he published in the Swansea Grammar School magazine, not only was he published in the school magazine but he was to follow his English master father into the magazine’s editorial chair.

At the time the house lacked the modern amenities it had no radio, no TV, no telephone, no hot water and coal fires provided the heating and hot water; by today’s standards a pretty Spartan life but all too familiar at the time.

Swansea Bay

The house stands on a hill and overlooks the gracefully arched and picturesque Swansea Bay with the distant blue-misty hills of the Avon valley and to the west the sleepy little town of Mumbles the snake-like peninsula of Worm’s Head, jutting into the waters of the Bristol Channel.

1914 Lifestyle

Now Dylan Thomas enthusiasts (or anyone else) to experience the 1914 life-style for five Cwmdonkin Drive has been transmogrified into a replica of the home at the time of Dylan’s birth. Only 300 guests per year will have the privilege of sleeping in the same bedroom in which Dylan Thomas was born. But those fortunate few will have to forego the conveniences of modern conveniences and suffer without a telephone, radio or television.

5 Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea, South Wales, UK

Contact Address: Penlan Cottage, Westport Avenue, Mayals, Swansea, SA3 5AR, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1792 405331

Dylan Thomas's Boat House

A more famous Dylan Thomas home overlooks the estuary of the Afon Taf. Dylan Thomas and the Boat House have made the small village of Laugharne famous and a magnet for Thomas fans. Of all the places associated with Dylan Thomas perhaps the Boat House at Laugharne is the most atmospheric and redolent of the man himself.

Dylan Thomas's Resting Place

Not only did he write many of his better known works at the Boat House but is also buried I the church yard there, where a simple white cross marks his grave.