CARDIFF | Full Summary of Projects

[Lyndon]

This is a better deprivation map:

http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/content.as...uage=&sortkey=

The deprivation tends to be concentrated in fairly focused areas. I'm not denying that Grangetown in particular is still poor, but the real deprivation problems in Cardiff are on the western and eastern periphery of the city, Ely in particular.

[Cambo_Dai]

I agree this is a good map. If you look however, there is some quite big blocks of distinct poverty in Butetown, Splott/Adamsdown/South Plasnewydd, Southern Riverside - the 'traditional inner city areas', the 'urban core' that we speak about. Whilst in the first and latter, the population is fairly young and includes lots of children, these are mainly of poor ethnic minority families... not the potential market for privately developed 'family apartments'. Indeed, there is a growing tendency for Asians, particularly Indians and Chinese, to move to the suburbs to have families. In particular, the area of Heath Park is known to have a sizeable Hindu population, and Pontprennau, the highest percentage of Chinese in the capital. As these are typically the wealthiest ethnic minoirities, they are following their white counterparts in leaving the inner city to the young and single, old and poorer ethnic minorities.

I would really live to have family apartments in the city - but I dont see them being feasible given the low housing stock we have to work with in much of the inner city - particularly Splott / Adamsdown which is pretty dire - and the reluctance the typically white middle class 'pioneers' show in moving in to areas with large ethnic populations - although Splott in particular is quite 'poor white'.. just a shame about poor houses, lack of green space etc. I think the best hope is for a comprehensive redevelopment of the Butetown estate when it comes up for renewal. It must be ending its feasible life fairly soon, atleast the 'older bits'. A replacement with something higher density, a mix of private, affordable private, and social housing in a high density arrangement of family aparments, smaller apartments, townhouses, duplexes etc, maybe 4 - 6 stories high around proper streets and squares would do the trick. Hopefully some real community can be achieved if we get the right kind of mixed development of families, young singles and couples, and older people, black, asian and white. Recapture the multicultural nature of Butetown rather than the current Somali ghetto of the estate, and the white (and some Asian) Atlantic wharf. It was a travesty what was done to the areas in the 1960s - yes some form of redevelopment was required, but one that was in keeping with the district and not an out-of-place suburban style council estate. Hopefully something can be done to prevent such an occurance in future.

[mustrum_ridcully]

Originally Posted by Lyndon

The 2001 census showed that the poorest parts of Cardiff are where most people would expect them to be; Butetown, Ely, St. Mellons and Tremorfa. This is confirmed by house prices, which are quite buoyant in places like Splott and Grangetown but absolutely abysmal in Ely.
I would expect gentrification to continue in places like Grangetown, which has loads of great big double-bay fronted terraces, as well as Splott and the south of Riverside.

Surely you mean affordable? If a single income (average) family with kids need a 3 bed house Ely is about the only place they can afford.

[Cambo_Dai]

I've found a new picture of the Meridian Gate apartments. I don't know how to link pics in directly so heres the link.

http://www.geocities.com/fluffy_shee...idian_Gate.jpg

[mustrum_ridcully]

Good to hear that the Glamorgan Cricket ground expansion plans have been approved by the council. Here comes test match cricket

[jantra]

does anyone know what has become of the proposal by Sky Asset to convert the building next to the custom house, penarth marina into an 18 storey residential tower ???

VoGC were originally against it but if Mizzen, Genoa and Spinnaker get the go ahead then perhaps we'll get this one too, now that would be awesome, a tower right on the barrage with one of the best restaurants in the capital....

[mustrum_ridcully]

Well if the development knocked down what I think was the Marine Hotel it would be a shame as it's one of the few Renaissance style buildings I can think of in the Cardiff area with its Mansard roof (which IMHO is a good enough reason to keep it). I think it could be redeveloped into several luxury apartments very easily.

[Andrew]

Cambo Dai, I cant access the link you posted but I looked around for any new pics of the Meridian Gate development and I found this:


Is that the same one?

I can't say I'm impressed with that one. I just hope the hotel tower next to it is really good quality to compensate. I guess they're trying to make the resdential tower quite non descript, maybe to draw attention to the hotel tower (and they also said that they didnt want this development to compete with altolusso). We'll see I suppose.

I'll probably not be posting much over the next few weeks, at the moment I'm in Guangzhou, China and have internet access in my hotel room but I'll be traveling to other parts of China and I dont know where I'll be staying. I'll be posting my best pics when I get back. It should be interesting how much has changed when I finally get back to Cardiff, it'll be a year since I left.

[Cambo_Dai]

That is the same one. Its not that exciting admittedly, but in my opinion, it at least offers a little bit of diversity in colours and materials compared to the current fad for a plain white building. In some instances this works (Alto Lusso), in others it just looks boring (The Aspect). What I hope is that they paint the Alto Lusso Car park because that really does look ugly in grey concrete!

I think the idea is to make the hotel the focal point of the development. The design seems to take some elements from the St David's Hotel (the roof in particular), and stretch it taller!

[Lyndon]

Any idea when construction starts on these projects? There's very little going on in central Cardiff right now, in stark contrast to Llanishen, which seems to be the construction capital of the western world at the moment.

[Cambo_Dai]

July seems a popular start date;
- The Glass Needle
- Callaghan Square
- Meridian Gate
- Central Hotel ( I think )

and pretty soon after that St David's II will be starting with the demolition of existing buildings. And then I'm quite sure we'll be complaining that theres TOO MUCH going on in Cardiff creating disruption, noise and lots of dust!

[Lyndon]

I'm looking forward to Callaghan Square. It's not much of a square at the moment with just one side. Are they doing the south side or the north west by the antiques market?

[pablo61]

Roll on July!! so much in the pipeline, so little activity. It's like all is planned for 18months or 2 years of construction mayhem for the city centre and it kicks off in July - can't wait

[Cambo_Dai]

The Callaghan Square site is the one by the antique's centre on the North West side. Its going to basically be a long fronted building along Tresillian Way, and then a car park in the middle and then another building fronting Penarth Road (the bit that goes up under the railway line to the west side of the Central Hotel) - at least thats what has been suggested is going to be there..

So its not going to make the square feel like much of a square. Rumour has it that the south-side might start in either autumn 2007, or spring 2008 - so quite a long time for that to come on board, and these dates could be seen as the "optimistic ones" too.

[Andrew]

Mmmmm construction mayhem, I love it! Can't wait either!

[jantra]

Originally Posted by mustrum_ridcully

Well if the development knocked down what I think was the Marine Hotel it would be a shame as it's one of the few Renaissance style buildings I can think of in the Cardiff area with its Mansard roof (which IMHO is a good enough reason to keep it). I think it could be redeveloped into several luxury apartments very easily.

i don't think it was to knock down the hotel (or remnanat of it). i beleive it was to be an Altolusso type development with the old building remaining as the lower three levels....shame, it is a beautiful building but it unlilely to be redeveloped just for three floors....

hopefully it will go ahead, the developer (owner of La marina / El Puerto restaurants next door) would assist VoGC in building the penarth marina walkway if this went ahead (he is the owner of the derelict property and is the developer also)

[DaiB]

God forbid that tower ever gets built. The last thing we need is a random, unclustered mid-rise which would wreck the view and character of Penarth Head from every angle.

[jantra]

Originally Posted by DaiB

God forbid that tower ever gets built. The last thing we need is a random, unclustered mid-rise which would wreck the view and character of Penarth Head from every angle.

Dai B

I have seen the plans and its quite like the Gerkin in London, very nice indeed. i don't think it'll spoil Penarth Head at all, it will not be that high. i think it'll just add to the overall skyline from the ISV.

it probably won't get built though. VoGC are so backward thinknig when it comes to devlopment. Decourcey wanted to redevelop Penarth front to include modern bars / restaurants and upgrade the pier to incude a theater / cinema type complex and the grey brigade campaigned against it due to them beleiving Penarth would 'lose' its victorian charm. The front is a dump and needs a radical improvement - it can still retain its charm. VoGC sided with the nearly deads.....

shame, Penarth is the jewel in Cardiff's crown imho and is hardly heard of. It would fare much better inside of Cardiff rather than being part of VoGC.

How may people know Cardiff has a Victorian Pier (ok not technically spekaing Cardiff but within a ten minute train ride of Cardiff City Centre).

We should make the most of it as it could help tourism no end....

[Cambo_Dai]

It would be interesting to see these plans. I'm just wondering how close to the cliff the tower would be, and how steep the cliff is? Would those at the back of the tower just be in the shadow of the cliff all the time? However I think theres the potential for it to look a rather nice development at the foot of the cliff, of course depending on the quality of the build.

I admit that Penarth would probably be better served by becoming part of Cardiff City Council, at least economically. However, with regard to Penarth sea front I can see some of their concerns. A selection of "modern bars / restaurants" could easily become a parade of Nandos, La Tasca and Pizza express, whilst 'modern bars' could quite easily be replaced with bars catering to those exclusively under 45. I think there is something to be said in keeping the area traditional and focussed on a somewhat older clientele, particularly given the rather old population of Penarth. You are correct, however, in asserting more needs to be done to spruce up the front and to better promote it - Cardiff city council seems much more successful at this kind of thing although the debarcle over the Cardiff Initiative recently has seriously tarnished the reputation of the council and chamber of commerce IMHO. Maybe distance has kept me from reading about it in the echo or what not... but it all seems very hush-hush and theres been very little info about just why it folded... and more importantly when the website will be back online. It must be costing Cardiff quite substantial visitor numbers.

I've always been a bit disappointed that Penarth Marina has remained a pure housing project and theres been no bars, cafes or restaurants there. I remember as a child going there to see the big boats and walk around with my parents - but we stopped because there wasn't really anything to do apart from that, and once you've seen them a few time it gets rather boring. I'm sure this will improve a lot when they build the Sports Village. However, I wonder how much of a fuss Penarth residents make of the 3 residential towers and their spoiled view of Cardiff?

[Pondle]

Wasn't there a vote held some years ago in which Penarth residents decided to remain outside Cardiff's boundary?