[Amscwl]

Can anyone guess which part of Cardiff these pictures were taken from? Even though the pictures are from different decades they now all form part of the same road/street.

Pictures are from the Cardiff County Media Collection hence the 'watermark'. Since we all pay our council tax I'm sure they won't mind us borrowing them.

 

[cardiff]

From the last pic its Churchil way, even though the street is a bit empty i preffer it now.

 

[Delirium]

it's a trick isn't it? it was taken last week that's what Cardiff looks like now! :tongue2: j/k

i really hope the cars we have today, crammed in streets like those look good in pics those ones do there :yes:

 

[Amscwl]

Wow... got it in less than 5 minutes.

Like you pointed out, Brunel House and the Guardian Royal Exchange building in the last shot help a little

Here's another street in 'town' which has totally transformed in the last few decades. I don't think there are any buildings remaining, however there is one small clue (and I think one of the shops was mentioned in another post some time back).

 

[Karldiff]

Is it Bridge Street?

 

[Lyndon]

Those pictures are fantastic Amscwl. Does the council have any plans to put the whole archive on the net?

 

[Amscwl]

Is it Bridge Street?

Correct!!

My memories of this part of Cardiff start from about 1985 so I did not recognize anything in the photo. The only small clue is the small sign pointing towards a multi-storey car park. The tops of the buildings don't seem to match those in the aerial photo posted by Cardiff at the beginning of the thread and the note on the picture said it was the South side of Bridge street so I guess the multi-storey in question is the Oxford Arcade car park??

The older looking picture was dated 1961. Interesting to see the 2 curry houses close to each other on the right side of the photo.

Those pictures are fantastic Amscwl. Does the council have any plans to put the whole archive on the net?

Glad you like them, although I can't take any credit for them. I don't work for the council so I couldn't answer your question, although I would very much like them to put their entire archive of photos and planning applications on the net.

Here's 2 more

You can see the remnants of a fine building on the very left, I'm guessing to hold up the brick building.

 

[Welsh American]

Oh wow. That last one is the Cory Hall which is across the road from Queen Street station.

It was a magnificent building with the most amazing ampitheatre in the top of it. It had bright red velvet seats.

I remember Bridge Street vividly and there is a good reason for it. When I was a teenager, I worked as a labourer on St. David's Center and was there every day for the last days of the old Bridge Street. There was possibly the roughest pub in Cardiff on that street called The Greyhound. It literally had sawdust on the floor and served rough cider.

I have my name painted on the back of the sand coloured concrete veneers of St. David's Center on Hill Street.

I used to love that pub The Panorama which I think was on David Street.

If anyone has any questions about that area and through the Bay, I remember quite a lot of it.

 

[Amscwl]

Yes it was Cory Hall, here are a few more from that same area.

There is a sign on the building which says "Sale By Auction". I wonder if the contents were being sold off? I know that seats from the Capitol ended up in the Chapter Arts Centre cinema.

Cory Hall demolished. I understand that Guardian Royal Exchange was slowly buying all the properties in that area with the intention of building a shopping mall, many of their initial proposals were turned down by the council (as it was only a retail development with no entertainment and the shops would not have faced onto Queen Street) but they eventually made enough changes and the boring Capitol Centre was built.

The Queen Street End of Station Terrace. I seem to recall the street art being very brightly coloured.

 

[Amscwl]

I remember Bridge Street vividly and there is a good reason for it. When I was a teenager, I worked as a labourer on St. David's Center and was there every day for the last days of the old Bridge Street.

Here are some pictures of your former workplace. I was always very impressed by the overall quality of St. Davids Centre and the way it complimented both Queen Street and The Hayes (possibly at the expense of High Street and St. Mary Street). The other shopping centres I remember from that time were both concrete and open while St. Davids Centre had sandstone exterior marble interior and was totally enclosed. In the 90's the marble was changed and there was (seemingly) more light light available in some parts, in additional Tivoli Gardens was removed to make way for the connection to Queens Arcade. In the entrances to some stores in St Davids Centre you used to be able to see the original marble flooring.

Is that building in the middle of the photo Littlewoods. If so then was M&S much smaller unit then or was part of it demolished for construction?

I guess the building on the right is South Wales Electricity. How come this building wasn't demolished. This building even survived in the plans of Buchanan and Centreplan 70?

Was that Primark (pronounced Preemark) on the very left. Was that unfenced area kept open for access to the rear of the stores.

The photos above were taken from Cardiff Central Library. Not sure where the one below was taken.

OAP's favourite seating area.

 

[Welsh American]

The building in the distance is Littlewoods. That extension on the back was built in about 1977.

As I recall, M&S was expanded when St. Davids Ctr was built, probably increasing the footprint by about 50% (all at the back by the food). There used to be an old entrance to M&S at the back off a little side street. They integrated the surrounding buildings quite well into St. Davids Ctr.

Just a hunch here, but I suspect that the Electricity building may be listed. It appears to be of a similar architecture and era to that of the old GE building rear where the Rose and Crown used to be.

I'm not sure about Primark, but Macross used to be in that vicinity. That area looks like is is where St. Davids Hall now is.

The picture with the tower crane in it is taken from the delivery ramp at the back of St. Davids Center which comes up of Bridge Street. It is gated off now. I spent too much time on that ramp! I actually had to throw the stones across that road surface as we were ashphalting it. It was the hardest job I've ever done in my life. The framimg in the back is the center itself by Hill Street. We excavated an old Black Death era mass graveyard just south of that.

 

[Amscwl]

Since you mention Mackross here are a few more of that area.

The brick building was called Gwent Chambers and was demolished in 1977 to make way for an expansion of the Mackross/Allders store.

The replacement building wasn't nearly so nice. I think that's Primark on the far right.

I remember that during Christmas 1988 a load of spivs (the sort of guys who sell 10 sheets of xmas paper for 1GBP from a clothes drying rail in Queen Street who run whenever a policeman would appear) broke into the Allders store and setup a spiv emporium. The was a story in the news paper about it being a fire hazard so my father banned me from going in - however the following Saturday me and my friends went and I was amazed that the inside was totally gutted with bare concrete and metal on the interior. The spivs must have read the Echo also had loads of fire extinguishers around the place.

At least the Queens Chambers don't look too bad.

 

[Karldiff]

Fascinating to see all those buildings. I can't remember what was there before Queens Arcade although I'm glad to note that even though the entrance in Queen St is a bit bland and the entrance in Working Street is a bit of a pastiche it's actually better than what was there before. The same with Churchill Way - I prefer whats there now.

As for Station Terrace - yes I know there are market forces etc but - what a travesty that area of town is now. A train station that looks like a public convenience, a Spar and a bleak streetscape. Whilst the interior actually feels a good deal classier than St Davids or Queens Arcade the exterior of the Capitol centre - apart from the recently added entrance on Queen St - is truly awful.

 

[Amscwl]

The building in the distance is Littlewoods. That extension on the back was built in about 1977.

As I recall, M&S was expanded when St. Davids Ctr was built, probably increasing the footprint by about 50% (all at the back by the food). There used to be an old entrance to M&S at the back off a little side street. They integrated the surrounding buildings quite well into St. Davids Ctr.

The picture with the tower crane in it is taken from the delivery ramp at the back of St. Davids Center which comes up of Bridge Street. It is gated off now. I spent too much time on that ramp! I actually had to throw the stones across that road surface as we were ashphalting it. It was the hardest job I've ever done in my life. The framimg in the back is the center itself by Hill Street. We excavated an old Black Death era mass graveyard just south of that.

Thanks for your responses WelshAmerican - I wonder what they did with the bones. I was also wondering if any of the Town Wall or Glamorgan Canal was demolished during the construction of the St. Davids Centre, or were they already gone by the 1970's?

 

[Welsh American]

Thanks for your responses WelshAmerican - I wonder what they did with the bones. I was also wondering if any of the Town Wall or Glamorgan Canal was demolished during the construction of the St. Davids Centre, or were they already gone by the 1970's?

We actually had to shut down work. They called in a HazMat team and everything was reinterred. Apparently, the bubonic plague virus stays active for 500 years and so there was a risk there would be an outbreak (maybe it was hysteria, but that's what we were told).

The toen wall and Glamorganshire canal was long gone by the time we were working on that.

I think the Glamorganshire Canal went down what is now Churchill Way.

 

[Amscwl]

If my history teacher was correct the canal under Churchill Way was the feeder canal for the Bute West and it is still there today to keep it topped up.

The map below shows the route of the feeder canal as well as the Glamorganshire Canal

Below are some shots of the Glamorganshire Canal and the Docks Feeder from around town.

As the canal is still present under Churchill Way what's stopping the council from opening it up again to create a waterfront area in a prime part of town?

 

[Cambo_Dai]

If efforts to redevelop Cardiff had waited til the 80s, like they did in much of west-Central Birmingham, or in Manchester.. some of those canals may have been saved. Just think of the atmosphere it could have added to the centre.

But, part of me says it was probably right to get rid of (at least most) of them. The city centre is a small area, much smaller than the central manchester, central Leeds or central Birmingham areas. The old layout of canals would have been incredibly constraining in terms of the larger shopping, residential and office developments in the city and whilst this would have been good if there was somewhere else central for them to go, it probably would have meant we'd have ended up with some large suburban Mall on Western or Eastern Avenue... yuck!

 

[Karldiff]

I think the issue regarding the dock feeder canal was raised by the Council a few years ago. It was decided that it would be too expensive to re-open.

The course of the dock feeder canal is open and can be traced from Bute Park, past the castle, under Kingsway, through Friary Gardens continuing behind the New Theatre until it seems to suddenly stop. Going by the map above it would appear that it follows a line roughly similar to where Park Lane off Queen St is, down Churchill Way and then it re-appears at the Big Sleep hotel. It also re-appears in the Atlantic Wharf housing estate and presumably goes into the Bute Dock.

Completely pie in the sky but what a canal trip that would be if the whole of it was open and navigable.

 

[cardiff]

The canal disapears under the Thistle, an old manager of the thistle told me that they have to go into it to unblock it now and again (through a scary hatch). Looking at those pics i think we lost some nice buildings and streetscapes to the south of mill lane (and the canal there), if it survived im sure it would be reminisant of canal street in Manchester - what do we have now, a brick monstrosity called the marriot!

 

[Amscwl]

I vaguely recall the area around North Road used to be full of terraced houses ( and there used to be a pub called the Hope??). Can you recall that area? Also the Plaza cinema used to be near to where the Gabalfa flyover is - I've tried to find pictures of it but to no avail - can anyone help?

View up North Road, Plaza cinema is on the right.
Taken during construction of the Gabalfa Flyover / Interchange during 1971. I read on another site that traffic noise was a problem.

Looks to be taken from the entrance of the Plaza.

Closed 17 Oct 1981, demolished July 1985. Was the fence there to stop people crossing North Road or to stop people entering a demolition site?

I haven't driven up North Road for a while, does this building still stand?