[Andrew]

Population: 137,011 (2001 Census)

Aerial photo I took of the whole city:

Zoomed into the city centre:

Some of my photos of the city centre (taken 07/07/03)

Panorama of the view east along the river:

Small office block on the east side of the river. Newport Castle window.

View of Newport Arts Centre U/C with the city's tallest building behind, taken from the east bank of the river:

Other photos of Newport from the internet

Newport Transporter Bridge:

An unusually green photo of the city centre:

Castle:

Some of the nicer buildings in Newport (yes there are some, they’re just hidden)

The Newport Arts Centre

The Newport Arts Centre was finished at the end of 2004

Photos from the internet (I can’t find any decent ones, only arty ones that show bits of it and one photo of it part built):

I haven’t seen it completed, from the photos I think it looks all right but not amazing.


Newport Unlimited Plans
Newport's Urban Regeneration Company, called Newport Unlimited was set up in 2002. Their plans for the city, if fully realised, will completely transform it. More specifically (considering this is a skyscraper forum), their plans include a number of landmark high rise buildings for the city centre.

Block diagrams of the city taken from the plans on Newport Unlimited's website show three distinct high rise buildings planned for the city centre:

There is particular mention of plans for the area around the station:

Station District
• Promote a landmark development at the Cambrian Centre and
investigate the opportunity to provide a tall building within the
development

(www.newportunlimited.com)

The plans as a whole are for the city up to the year 2020. However, we should be seeing the Cambrian Centre "landmark" development as early as next year in the form of this:

A 27 story residential tower plus retail and offices on the site of the Cambrian Centre. Construction is due to start this summer!

News from Newport City Council's website:

Cambrian Road development
Newport City Council Planning Committee has approved plans by Goldtique Investments to redevelop the City’s Cambrian Centre, opposite Newport High St. Rail Station.

Designed by architects Holder Mathias, the project involves the retention of some of the retail units on Cambrian Road and the demolition of the existing car park. A new 27 storey residential building, shops and about 67,000 sq. ft net of offices will be created, together with a new 100 plus bedroom hotel and a more efficient, larger car park.

The proposed scheme will be a dramatic change from the existing buildings. The multi-storey apartment block will create a new landmark for Newport with views over the city and the River Usk. Construction is expected to start early summer 2005.

(www.newport.gov.uk)

Also there's this 17 story residential tower due to form part of the city's main shopping centre redevelopment.

New footbridge over the Usk, about to start construction

Hopefully, considering the speed that developers snapped up the Cambrian Centre site, we'll see quite a few more "landmark" buildings in Newport. I have a suspicion that Newport might just be a place to watch!


Good websites for info on developments in Newport:
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/bdbsearch.php?cs=0&city=Newport
http://city.newport.net/
http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm
http://www.newportunlimited.co.uk

 

[danJonze87]

the future's bright for newport. And about time cause it's not the nicest place in the world (to put it nicely). And a three welsh city skyscraper battle is always welcome

 

[Accura4Matalan]

Looks very good Is Newport part of the Cardiff metro?

 

[danJonze87]

pretty much, could even argue it's a cardiff district. But the 'portians wont like that

 

[AndrewC]

how big is newport?

 

[danJonze87]

think the city itself is about 175,000 population (not including near large towns like cwmbran and pontypool).

 

[AndrewC]

hmm, thats not a bad starting block. A big population is vital for forcing small town country yokels out of the plac.e Then you can make it a truely safe and great place to visit.

 

[gothicform]

i find holding a wurzels concert on the outskirts attracts the yokels. you then put nets under the trees to catch them in. works every time!

 

[Andrew]

Can you see the photos? They uploaded fine but I can't see them now.
Dan, where did you get the population figure from? When I looked on the census website it gave me the figure of 137,011.

 

[danJonze87]

i dunno, i was guessing

 

[gothicform]

andrew, theyve vanished here too. grrrrrr

 

[Andrew]

Damn, I'll upload them again!

 

[Jim]

Andrew, how did you manange to take an aerial photo?
BTW, still no pictures for me.

Also, I can host 'em for free if you want.

 

[Jim]

Dan, where did you get the population figure from? When I looked on the census website it gave me the figure of 137,011.

I think the 137K figure is the urban area. If you count the rest of the villiages etc in the Newport Unitary Authority, I think the figure rises to what dan is saying.

 

[Andrew]

ah right

 

[morestoreysplease]

There's a swathe of green between Cardiff and Newport, where I drove to visit the Millenium Stadium a couple of yrs ago. To avoid the M4 traffic I went via a place called Peterstone Wentlooge (my atlas says!). I think it's gonna take a few yrs before the 2 cities are joined.

 

[West X]

andrew is right with the figure of 137K. this is the pop. of the unitary authority area, so that's the 'port and any smaller settlements in the UA going as far as Magor i believe before you get to monmouth UA.

the UA does not include settlements that could be regarded as part of the newport continuous built-up area, such as cwmbran. this is in torfaen UA, has its own shopping centre and effectively serves to dilute the retail spending power within newport itself. cwmbran has i understand had a house of fraser for years. if people in the gwent valleys have to travel , then its just as easy to go to cardiff, bristol or even cribbs causeway for a better range of shops.

herein lies newports problem, stuck between a rock and a hard place. its quite simply not large enough to withstand the pull exerted from larger centres from either side. but the potential is there, with waterside development opportunites, good communications etc. in fact if newport couldn't manage to do something worthwhile it would be tantamount to a criminal act. its had effectively full employment for more years than a lot of places in this part of the world could dream of, even the loss of Llanwern represents in the broader sense little more than a minor blip.

anyway, the gap between newport and cardiff will remain for the foreseeable future. much of it is designated SSSI, and the rest is green wedge/landscape protection area and thus in planning policy terms is a no go area. its low lying land and thus could be susceptible to flooding. i would not expect to see the coalescence of newport and cardiff in my lifetime.

go newport!

 

[Andrew]

Hmmm, the photos are working again now and I haven't uploaded them again. Oh well, lets see how long that lasts!

 

[Jim]

Hmmm, the photos are working again now and I haven't uploaded them again. Oh well, lets see how long that lasts!

Wow, cool photos! Did you really do the aerial ones yourself? Were you in a commercial jet, or a private plane?

 

[Andrew]

The aerial photos are from a flight I took last summer from Cardiff to Paris. I wish it was a private jet! lol Nah, it was an Easy Jet flight for 20 quid!