'Downtown' Cardiff

[Andrew]

Cardiff has a relatively small and compact city centre, you can walk right across it in just 5-10 minutes. It's small area does make it quite dense though and most of the city's tall buildings are to be found there. As a result, some streets are begining to get a bit of a 'downtown' feel to them. Here are some of my pics from in and around the city centre.


Newport Road, leading into the city centre; probably the area with the most 'downtown' feel to it (though not for much longer):














View up Lloyd George Ave. towards the centre:







Callaghan Square:

[Andrew]

Old Centre (St Mary's Street, Wood Street, Westgate Street, Duke Street etc.):

[perekamuda]

very cute, clean, neat, and tidy for Wales capital!

However Cardiff landmark is the remarkable and outstanding Millenium stadium.. home of FA cup finals in these latest years
Glad to hear that some 50-100 meters tall well-designed highrises are being proposed to improve its skyline in near future

[cardiff]

nice pictures, but i dont think the center is that small, takes about 10 minutes to walk Queen street alone on busy days. And compared to cities of a similar size it has a large city center - just think of the distance from eastgate house to cathedral rd or civic center to calaghan square an area of just over a square mile

[Andrew]

Cardiff's city centre is small by both national and international standards though. The fact that when it's busy it takes a longer to walk Queen Street doesn't make the place any bigger, it just means that it's busier. As I said, it's a small but dense city centre so on some days it can get really quite crowded. This density is what gives parts of the city a more 'big city' feel not the area that the city centre covers.

More pics to come soon by the way (probably at the end of the week).

[Andrew]

Here are some more (all the pics I post in this thread are taken by me):













Finally, two views that'll never look like this again:

[cardiff]

those last two pictures dont look like that now! amazing the pase of change. Excellent pictures though

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's what I meant. If anyone goes to Cardiff now they won't see those last two views.

[TYW]

Cardiff is clean and beautiful! thanks for the pics, Andrew

[kurakura]

Pretty neat trees there.

[Andrew]

It's been a long time since I've added photos to this thread so here are some more:

[Andrew]

Wood Street and the 1950s bus station:

[RafflesCity]

Great pics!

Is this the tallest building in the city?
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/3...014copyvu4.jpg

The pic captures the depth well.

And this is that example of facadism captured again

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/6...023copykp7.jpg

[severl]

A clean and beautiful city!


Linyi shandong china

[cardiff]

Its cool to look back at some of the pictures and see the change, also cant wait for summer!

[moher]

nice pics city is clean and nice.

i was in Cardiff last year but i don't feel i saw this city - that's why i want to ask people who live there, i have only about 2 or 3 hours free in the city, i don't have a car, and i need to be close to the Millenium Stadium - what can i see during this time in cardiff? nice parks, buildings, places with nice view to do some pictures? hope u can help me a little bit

[cardiff]

Id walk a loop of the city center, from the stadium head north towards the castle but go into the park. once inside enjoy the views of the catle and standing stones, then head towrds the civic center walking under the bypass. walk to the city hall and do a loop around the edge of the memorial park seeing all the fine architecture there and taking a detour into the park to see the monuments in there. Id have a quick look at the marble hall inside the city hall and under the dome (both upstairs), and then a quick look at some of the impressionist art in the museum (its upstairs and free to get in and is the second largest collection in the world), both places you go in and the stairs are on the left and right hand sides (though city hall might ask your business, just say looking around and they will let you know whats unavailable to view). From here id walk towards queen street either going the most direct route passed the new theater or further along windsor place. walk down queen street back to the castle and take a left onto the hayes, from here i would zig zag my way through the arcades back and forth between the hayes and st marys street ending up next to the new st davids 2 and library from where you can walk down mill lane with its bars and restaurants to st marys street again. Head north towards the castle, If you want you can have a quick pop in to see the brewery quarter and head back onto st marys street. From here cross the street down wood street and either keep on walking over the bridge to get a good view of the stadium and river or head back up westgate street to the stadium. Should take you about an hour to do this if you dont spend too much time getting involved with things. if you want to get involved a bit more then you can pay to get into the castle grounds only, and climb the keep from where you get a good view over the city, id give yourself around half an hour to forty five minutes depending on how fit you are. Also you can spend longer in the national museum or go into the indoor market when zig zagging between arcades. 3 hours should be enough to get a feel for the city center, though you will miss places like Newport rd with its american style strip of tall (ish) buildings (quite impressive), and charles street which has a nice georgian feel. Also you wont be able to do the bay. if you wanted to go to the inner harbour you could just go to the park (a must to get the view of the castle) and then to the civic center avoiding entering any buildings, followed by avoiding queen street and heading straight down the hayes, mill lane and to the station (looking back to get the striking view of sleeperz, meridian gate and altolousso) and catch a bus down to the bay (every 20 mins from the rear of the station). Get off right outside the millennium center, if its around 12 then you might catch a free perfromance in the foyer, if not its still a beautiful building inside. From the center head to the senedd, its free to get in but there is some security. Only thing you can do in there really is go to the upper level and admire the roof and view towards the bay, and then have a quick peak into the gallery overlooking the main debating chamber (though the best view in here is seen only by people in the chamber). From here walk to mermaid quay (the restaurants) and taking in the atmosphere (if nice weather) if not skip this and head to the coal exchange and around the old part of cardiff bay (some stunning architecture if a little scruffy in places) then head back to where you got off the bus and head back to the center.

My highlights of Cardiff are walking along the riverside to the bay and along atlantic wharf but this will be too much if you want to see both center and bay in 2-3 hours.

[Mr Bricks]

Cool pics, but why not show more of the old streets? I´ve seen far more impressive pics of Cardiff.

[moher]

i wont have more time than 2-3 hours i think, unfortunately, but i have to decide what to do - i saw the castle last year so i think we will go for a walk along the riverside to the bay, and go back thanks for your help "cardiff"!

[Bristol Mike]

Excellent pictures of Caerdydd. I really want to go there in the near future, perhaps in spring when the weather is a bit nicer.