Former clock factory, Swansea

Link to Welsh translationLink to French translationFormer clock factory, 16 Wind Street, Swansea

The Peppermint Bar occupies the site of five previous shops and businesses. At 16 Wind Street, Cornelius Tyte made and sold clocks and watches. He was also a jeweller and silversmith. He came from a family of clockmakers in Wells, Somerset, and is thought to have worked here for about 40 years from the mid-1820s.

Timepieces from his long career in Swansea are typically marked “C Tyte, Swansea”. One example, a mahogany long-case clock, sold at auction in 2004 for £2,585.

One Wednesday night in July 1858, Mr Tyte’s assistant watchmaker went upstairs to bed after 11pm and noticed a burning smell coming from number 15, the clothes shop next door. The fire destroyed stock worth £400 (about £45,000 today) and caused £150 worth of damage to the building. Both were insured.

A fire at number 17 in 1846 caused £200 of damage, mostly uninsured. The building was occupied by printers and stationers Ivey and Pearse. Occupants of the adjacent buildings fled in their night dresses as soldiers and police began “throwing water” on the buildings. Later that century, number 17 was home to the Globe Dining Rooms, which had guest bedrooms and supplied “picnic parties”.

In the early 20th century, numbers 15 and 16 were known as Salisbury Chambers – offices of a stockbroker, architect, tailor, colliery agents, Worthington brewery and others.

Number 13 (where Peppermint’s main entrance is today) was once the shop of a perfumer called John Morgan Jones who sold scents, gloves, hats and “ornamental hair”. He inherited the business from his aunt and uncle in 1842. In the early 20th century, the Maggs brothers sold caged birds here. In 1913 they advertised “canaries in full song, cages, medicines and appliances”.

Until 1824, number 14 was the Irish Linen Warehouse, where shoppers could buy goods made of linen from Ireland. Later in that century, musical instruments were sold at number 14.

Postcode: SA1 1DP    View Location Map

Website of Peppermint Bar

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