In order for it to find its way to Gorse Lane at the very rear of Victoria Park in 1920, any number of highly complex things had to come to pass. A female child had to be born in Madrid in 1843 to opera singing parents of Italian extraction called Patti. Those parents had to emigrate to New York in 1847 in order to find more opportunities for their talents. Their little girl was called Adelina and she made her first stage performance at the age of seven and by sixteen had made her operatic debut. The rest, as they say, is history and her rise to worldwide success was meteoric and enduring.

Adelina Patti became the most famous opera singer in the world by the 1870's. She made Europe her base and in 1878 bought 'Craig-y-Nos' (the 'Rock of the Night' in Welsh) in the Upper Swansea Valley near Abercrave. Having bought this large early Victorian house (1840) for £3,500 (approx. £200,000 now) she then set about dramatically expanding it, spending £100,000 (approx. £6m in today's money). For this she got a new north and south wing, a winter garden, conservatory and a clock tower. It became Craig-y-Nos Castle. Such was the extent of her fame that she was able to pay for all of this with just one tour of the USA, for which she charged £1000 (£60,000 now) per performance.

The charismatic diva was arguably the most famous and highly paid female performer in the world throughout the 1890's. She was married three times and appears to have been universally liked and lived in high style. She even had her own lavishly appointed railway carriage maintained for her at Penwyllt station, complete with private waiting room. The local railway company laid on a steam locomotive to take her wherever she wanted to go. She held numerous concerts at the Albert Hall and raised large sums for local charities. In fact her last public appearance was in 1914 when she was already in retirement and 71 years of age. It was a charitable concert to raise money for the Red Cross. She died at Craig-y-Nos on 27th September 1919.

What we now call the Patti Pavilion was her 'winter garden' and probably dates from 1891. She used to stroll around it with her guests and it was decked out with tropical plants and exotic birds. Old photographs can be seen in Brecknockshire Museum to testify to this. In 1918 she donated her winter garden to the people of Swansea. However when the removal men came to dismantle it, there was no other labour on hand to help, all able-bodied men having left for the war. After her death it was finally re-erected in Victoria Park in 1920.

The Patti Pavilion has been used for many things in the intervening 84 years. Most latterly it has been used for beer festivals, as a rock music venue and a temporary examination hall for the University. In the 1990's it attracted the attention of a television 'make-over' programme and was temporarily revived.

Richard Porch

This is an extract from Richard Porch's book 'Swansea: History You Can See', published in 2005 by Tempus Publishing / City & County of Swansea.