A prominent and eye-catching artwork in Swansea city centre has been demolished.
The simple black and white motif on a red-brick wall has been in place since 2014 when it was commissioned as part of Dylan Thomas 100 project.
The simple message "more poetry is needed" has been admired by visitors and people living in Swansea alike and was painted on a vacant building in the former St David's Shopping Centre, to the north of the temporary St Mary's car park.
The building is now in the process of being torn down to make way for Swansea's planned 3,500 capacity digital arena and new car park, as part of Swansea Central Phase One.
The planned demolition of the artwork, produced by artist Jeremy Deller, was announced by Swansea Council last year.
At the time a council spokesman said: "This temporary artwork was installed around five years ago.
"It was commissioned by an arts agency as a temporary item that was always intended to be removed when work on the £1bn regeneration of the city centre got underway.
"Of course, we’d have liked to keep it but, sadly, due to its size and the fact that it’s painted directly on to a brick wall of a building due for demolition, conservation was always going to be impractical and costly to council tax payers."
Swansea central phase one
It seems the artwork will be missed and was a favourite of people visiting and working in the city centre.
Sally Thomas, from Birchgrove, used to pass the artwork on her way to work each morning.
"It’s devastating that the artwork has been knocked down.
"It actually inspired me to write more poetry - badly, but that’s not the point.
"It's such a tragic loss of an amazing and iconic piece of contemporary art. I really hope a second version gets commissioned somewhere else in Swansea," she said.
Artist, Graham Parker, who lives in Mumles and works from Elysium Studios, Mansel Street, took pictures of the demolition as it got underway on Wednesday, March 11.
"Swansea can't stay in the past but I worry that in the rush for redevelopment important parts of our environment and culture are being destroyed forever.
"This wonderful and loved artwork is a classic example of this," he said.
As well as the new digital arena a new pedestrian bridge over Oystermouth Road will link the site to a multi-storey car park and a building containing 15 retail units and 36 flats.
