Many local inns, taverns and hotels were no bigger than any family cottage – the Seaside Hotel is typical of the type seen in the Seaside area, but with the decline of the maritime trade the death knell was sounded for many of the local lodging houses.

Formerly The Three Mariners, the Seaside Hotel was built early in the 19th century near the entrance to the Carmarthenshire Dock, the Harbour Office (now demolished) and the Hope and Anchor (now the KK Club), stood alongside.

Seen here at the start of the 21st century the Seaside Hotel was awaiting redevelopment and the building, complete with its ghost, stands alone, neglected and shuttered – opposite the North Dock development – on the new link road from Trostre to Sandy Water Park.

Seaside Hotel is a reminder of the close-knit community that once lived on Custom House Bank, Seaside, a group of 35 houses inhabited mainly by seafarers. The small, snug, cottages, with walls two feet thick were made of slag from the Copperworks. Originally the cottages were tenanted by sea-faring folk, but between 1920 and 1939 they were home to dockers, fishermen, colliers and tinworkers.

Considered by locals to be the heart and soul of Seaside, Custom House Bank was among the first dwellings to be scheduled for slum clearance around 1939. The district never quite recovered when the tenants were forced to move to a new housing estate.

Custom House Bank known as ‘the Bank’, comprised of two rows of lime-washed cottages facing seawards opposite the docks entrance. The front row cottages, on what was known as ‘Banc bach’ were in Cambrian Street and behind them, and further up the slope was the street called Custom House Bank. Most of the cottages had one room up and one down and coal was usually kept in a cwch (alcove) under the stairs. The dwellings may have been small but they were always kept clean and tidy.