These pictures show the changing face of Swansea city centre through the years

Swansea council has announced plans for a multi-million new waterfront and city centre including seafront homes, an aquarium, a new cinema, and cafe bars and restaurants.

It will be another “new face” for the centre of Swansea which has seen a number of changes over the decades, the greatest changes being enforced by WWII bombing.

Swansea council leader Rob Stewart says the new developments in Swansea's city centre, which willl cost £500m and bring £500m worth of economic impact in terms of jobs and new investment, should be largely completed by 2021, by which time, he said, the city would be "unrecognisable" from what it is today and would be firmly established as the capital of the South West Wales region.

Swansea Market

In 1880 the famous Swansea Marke t looked a lot different from today's covered site.

In the 1920s, trams were a common site in the town centre.

Bustling Castle Street in the centre of Swansea on November 9, 1938.

The blitz

The terrible destruction of the centre of Swansea during the WWII T hree day blitze of February 19-21, 1941 is shown here (below). A total of 230 people were killed and more than 400 were injured.

Swansea was selected as a legitimate target due to its importance as a port and docks and the oil refinery just beyond and its destruction was key to Nazi German war efforts as part of their strategic bombing campaign aimed at crippling coal exports and demoralising civilians and emergency services.

Incendiary bombs as well as high explosives were dropped over Swansea and the town centre was engulfed in flames. The 17th century grammar school that had stood on Mount Pleasant Hill since 1851 and was the old school of Dylan Thomas took a direct hit.

Swansea was rebuilt over the next few decades, its centre becoming a mixture of the old buildings that survived (including much of Swansea Castle) and buildings built in 1940s, '50', 60's and '70s styles.

Today's Swansea

A picture of Swansea taken in 2015 showing the Meridian Tower in Swansea Marina which by now had become an iconic feature of the Swansea skyline. The tower is the tallest residential building in Wales standing at 107m (351ft).

The tower has 29 storeys, double the number of the previous tallest building in Swansea, the BT Tower. Most of the tower houses residential apartments and at one time a number of Swansea City stars lived in it including South Koran midfielder Ki and Spanish striker Michu.

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The tower "topped out" to its full height on September 12 2008 and the Grape and Olive restaurant and conference centre was the spectacular location where Swansea council announced its plans for the new city centre and seafront.