Cardiff Uk's hidden beauty part 2 (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=4995358#post4995358) part 3 (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=5047027#post5047027)

Here are some pictures of Cardiff, its Europes youngest and fastest growing capital city. It has a number of huge construction projects underway, the most famous is the redevelopment of the bay area; an area which had fallen into disrepair after the closure of the coal mines, and hence no longer exported coal. It is a city with many different contrasting areas that make you feel as if you are in another part of the country after walking for only five minutes.
This is the civic centre, it consists of around 10 buildings made of white Portland stone, centred around Alexandria park, which contains the war memorial for wales.
This is the city hall
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805004.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805003.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805014.jpg
this is the clock tower
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805007.jpg
the interior is covered in marble, statues of welsh and british heroes and ornate wooden carvings
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805015.jpg
if you notice the picture of princess Diana which was removed for a vist by the prince of wales and his NEW wife
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805017.jpg
thisis the main hall
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805018.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805019.jpg
This is the council debating chamber underneath the dome
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805020.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805021.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805023.jpg

This is the University main building
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805025.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805026.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805034.jpg
this is its main staircase
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805028.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805029.jpg
the science library
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805031.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805033.jpg
This is the war memorial in the park
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805037.jpghttp://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805038.jpg
the glamorgan building
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805039.jpg
registrar office (note the dragon, the symbol of wales!)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805041.jpg
Law courts and and a memorial
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805043.jpg
This is the museum of Wales, it houses among many other things the second largest collection of impresionist art (the first being the Louvre in Paris)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805005.jpg
Cardiff also has a 2 thousand year old castle at its centre, once owned by the richest man in the world. Its is undergoing the "Biggest arts conservation project of its type in the UK" at the moment but if you visit the website they have some pictures of it without the scafolding http://www.cardiffcastle.com
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805045.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805011.jpg
This is the Millenium Stadium, the largest indoor arena in Europe and has become the National stadium for the UK while Wembly is being built. It has a retractable roof and can hold over 72,500 people in the stalls and even more on the pitch when it comes to concerts (recent ones include Tsunami appeal, U2, REM). Also holds other events such as Rally cars.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805048.jpg
Cardiff has a great shopping centre about to be added to by a 352 million pound redevelopment of the citys southern shopping area (called St Davids 2 project). The nicest places to shop are the old victorian shoping arcades, and with around 15 arcades, cardiff is known as the city of arcades.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805051.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805049.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805050.jpg
This is cardiffs indoor market
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805052.jpg
this is the old library, which houses a museum, tourist information, restaurants, art gallery and exhibition space
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805053.jpg
this is the Hayes shopping area
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805055.jpg
this is the bay redevelopment - there is shopping, restaurants, national assembly for wales, Milenium centre (multi million pound opera and arts house), Rhoal Dhal Plazz - open area for events, St davids 5 star spar hotel, site for the new sports village (with plans for a few skyscrapers there hopefully, snow dome, ice rink, olympic swimming pool etc.)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805056.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805058.jpg
This is the Welsh assembly depbating chamber (nearly complete!)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805059.jpg
Rhoal Dhal Plazz and Millenium Centre (affectionatly known as the armadillo)
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805061.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805062.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805063.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805065.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805066.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805068.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805067.jpg
Hope you like, there is alot more here that i havent shown
Here is part 2 cardiff 2 (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=243084)

Beautiful! Would love to visit the city one day! These large hollowed letters look funky!

Indeed a very nice city. I just came back from Cardiff a couple of days ago, after spending a week in the Brecon Beacons and 4 days in Cardiff. I liked the city very much and will definitely go there again. It's funny to see I took a lot of the same pictures as you did.

Will be taking a few more of the places that most people dont see and posting them soon.

Cardiff.

A city rarely spoken of on this site.


Looks a very nice place indeedy.

Beautiful city. Was very enjoyable. Is it really that young a city? And the youngest capital?

Cardiff is a very nice city. It is about as old as all the other UK Cities but it only became a city in 1905 and capital city of Wales in 1955. It is Europe's second youngest capital after Bratislava which was made capital of the Slovak republic in 1993.

Ah i stand corrected, i must tell the local news people, as its our centenary year they have been anouncing its Europes youngest capital (perhaps they mean in the union? is slovak part of it? Has Bratislava been a capital before (i think so?)?) but it definately is the fastest growing capital city. Was made a city in 1905 and capital of Wales in 1955. Wales is the only place in the world apart from the united states to experiance inward migration after the discovery of coal in the south wales valleys. Before 1800 there was only a crumbling castle and a small village. The first million pound cheque was signed in cardiffs Coal exchange.

Anymore pics?

here are some more pics

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/DSC00232.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/DSC00233.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805008.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805013.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/Cardiff_SouthWest_M.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805002.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805038.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/fly-28.jpg

fantastic city, the memorial its superb, wath is that stadium in the 5 pic?

that is the millenium stadium, becomes the largest indoor arena in Europe when the roof is closed, it held around 120,000 people when U2 had a concert there a few weeks ago, making it the fourth largest city in wales!lol

The Millenium Stadium. 72,000 seats making it one of the biggest (if not the biggest?) of the stadiums in the UK.

I might try to get into town sometime this week and get some pics, don't expect them to be great quality as I'm quite frankly not a very good photographer :). But I'll give it a go.

Its very hard to gey a good picture of the stadium as its very big, and the nicest part (i think) is the roof, which of course you cant see! i have put some more pictures of Cardiff online go here
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=243084

nice, the stadium have a nice design, thanks Cardiff!!

I like it, its what cardiff is most famous for at the moment. Hopefully they will build some sort of skyscraper or observation post (like in Portsmouth) as it causes less mess!

A waze of recognition washed over me when I saw the pic of Mellenium Centre - I saw it on an episode of Doctor Who a couple of weeks ago. The doctor parked his police box right in the middle of Roald Dahl Plaza (and like most kids I read all of Roald Dahl's books when I was a kid)

Cardiff looks like a very nice city indeed.

Most of Doctor Who was filmed and is being filmed in cardiff, they try and pass parts of it off as london or other place, but its cool for locals to go, ive walked past there yesterday!

I like it, its what cardiff is most famous for at the moment. Hopefully they will build some sort of skyscraper or observation post (like in Portsmouth) as it causes less mess!
they have plans to built something higth like a tower or a skraper?

yes, a few 10 to 20 storey apartments all over the bay. And there's Wood Street tower which will begin construction soon, which will be over 100m making it the tallest in the city. Then there is the sports village development, also in the bay which is to include 2 tall buildings (80m to 100m range i think). Cardiff could do with a few more tall buildings. A few more well designed 70-80m buildings and 2 or 3 over 100m. It would look great. That may attract even more high-rise development and we may one day compete with the big guns like manchester and birmingham. They may have size on their side, but what's so great about Cardiff is that it's a city of just over 300,000 population (about 800,000 metro pop) can compete against places like manchester, glasgow, brum and so on, be it sporting facilites, arts centres, museums, universities, shopping etc, even though we're much smaller.

Very pretty city.I liked Millenium Stadium a lot and the new developments undergoing in the city are beautiful.

That is the good thing about cardiff, its a big city, yet a small one. It has as good facilities if not better as any of the other uk majour cities, yet you dont feel the rudeness you get in those cities. The city plan is to creat a capital city as good as any other in europe, and one that will attract people not only to the city but to the country as well. Thats why there are so many big projects under development here.

any more pics?

and what buildings are UC right now in Cardiff...big or small.

Here are the main things UC in Cardiff right now:

Heritage Gateway Tower - 101m / 31 floors:
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/232HeritageGatewayScheme_pic2.jpg


Ty Pont Haearn - 63m (estimate) / 21 floors:
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/1313TyPontHaearn_pic3.jpg
You can see it in this pic from page 1 of this thread:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/sanstiss/cardiff020805008.jpg


Celestia - Includes 2 towers of 15 or 16 floors (not sure which):
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/1067CelestiaTower2_pic1.jpg


Prospect Place - Includes a few 11 floor blocks and a 19 floor tower, there are pics but I can't find one at the moment.

I love it when you find these thing, that you had no idea excisted....very beautiful city

Thats what i find about most UK cites, because they were constructed when Britain had an empire there was alot of money to spend on large civic buildings. Also Britain is booming at the moment so cities like Cardiff can redevelop areas that are no longer of use, and therefore we have British cites that all have at least 4/5 things to go and see in them

I love it when you find these thing, that you had no idea excisted....very beautiful city

You didnt know Cardiff existed?

It is a capital city of a western european country.


Heritage Gateway Tower is UC...really?

I didnt know something that tall was going up.

Yes the old development buildings are covered in scafolding and there is a big coming soon poster on the side with a picture of the Heritage gateway scheme tower on it (i hope they give it a name). Also there has been alot of work going on around the St davids 2 project area, looks like they are testing out the area for the start of work! Alot of shops have closed down as well in the oxford arcade, MVC has gone. There was also a picture in the local newspaer about the football stadium to be built for Cardiff City Football Club. It said its a 100 million pound development, plus the 352 million pound development for st davids 2, the sports village and casino, and the heritage tower and the water quarter development; there is alot of investment here!