OPPOSITE Joe's ice cream parlour in St Helen's Road is Miah's Indian Restaurant, formerly St Paul's Congregational church, opened in 1881, which will always be associated with the Rev Leon Atkin. Born in Lincolnshire in 1902, Leon Atkin came to Swansea in the 1930s when St Paul's had only ten members. A campaigner for the disadvantaged, he held open-air meetings, preached a social gospel, challenged militant communists and criticised the ineffectiveness of the Labour Party (to which he belonged) and of churches in Wales. As stated earlier in this series, he was not afraid to challenge Oswald Mosley's anti-Semitism at a rally at the Plaza cinema.

Leon Atkin developed a ministry among needy people — his care for the "down and outs" in the crypt of St Paul's (in spite of the opposition of the deacons) became known through his articles in the press and the News of the World. His congregations grew to 200 on winter Sunday nights and, with holiday visitors, to over 500 in the summer. He was something of a maverick, but public disapproval never inhibited him from his ministry or from christening babies of single mothers.

From 1936 he also served as a Labour councillor and after being an Army Chaplain in the Netherlands during the war, he served for 17 more years on the council as an Independent.

The crypt of St Paul's became a refuge for homeless people, particularly during the bitter winter of 1947, and they were welcomed there each Christmas. Leon Atkin would go around Swansea pubs each week to collect money for the homeless and to enable children from poor families to enjoy Guy Fawkes' nights and to visit the circus.

With his beret and clerical collar Leon Atkin was a well-known figure, admired by people who had little time for church or organised religion. Though he died in 1976, Christian ministry among the homeless in Swansea is carried on today at Zac's Place in George Street.