Mixed messages on future of Cardiff’s arcades

Times are tough for traders in Cardiff's Castle Arcade

Running through between St Mary Street, Castle Street, The Hayes and High Street are Cardiff’s Victorian Arcades.

They offer an alternative to the big brand high-street and are filled with a variety of shops, cafes and stores. But are they under threat or is it just smoke and mirrors?

On August 4th, there was a story about how the traders in the Arcades, particularly the Castle Arcade, were unhappy with how business was and felt they were under threat. The opening of St David’s shopping centre, the shift of trade away from their end of town, the roadworks on High Street/St Mary Street and the recent roadworks on Castle Street. Add in high rates, squeeze from the banks on availability of finance and consumers less likely to dip into their pockets for luxury goods and it seemed the age of austerity was biting in the Arcades.

But, on August 10th the news comes from Curzon, who own the Castle Street Arcade, that it now has a full compliment of traders and the future looked bright.

So, where does this leave the Arcades? The businesses in the Royal and Morgan Arcades, which are closer to The Hayes and St David’s, seem to be booming and benefiting from the increased footfall brought in by the new giant shopping centre.

Image credit to zawtowers

What do you think about the Arcade’s future? Do you think they are important for Cardiff? Will the big brands eventually shoe-horn independent retailers out of the city centre? Have your say in the comments below

Lovely baps: Hooters planned for city centre

Cardiff is cementing itself as a stag and hen night destination, and the addition of a Hooters to the city centre will certainly make it an even more popular place to come.

There’s been one hell of a debate over the opening of the American chain but in the end all the protests, Facebook angry words and tweets came to nothing as no one who could object (i.e. local businesses or people) did object. Leaving Cardiff Council with no choice but to grant the permission for Hooters to go ahead and do what it does. If you’re not familiar with Hooters, it’s like a Wetherspoons but with attractive, scantily clad women, walking around and serving you the food and drinks.

We’ve enjoyed watching people work up a self-righteous fury on both sides of the debate over it, and enjoyed these posts in particular from Victoria Whittal-Williams on WalesHome and the musings of Lib Dem Matt Smith.

Image credit to elitistczar

What do you think of the Hooters decision? A step forward for our night-time economy or a slip in standards? Leave your comments below

Seeing Cardiff through a tourist’s eyes

During this time of year you see a surprising number of back-pack wearing, map reading and sunglasses wearing/umbrella holding (delete depending on weather) tourists can be seen in Cardiff. It seems the capital is trying hard to attract those from around the world to visit the Castle, Millennium Stadium and sample some of the great shopping we’ve got on offer. It’s been interesting reading these accounts from tourists of their visits to Cardiff.

Social Mom ‘Donna’ gives a Stateside view on the city, she was impressed by the shopping and in particular with the St David’s centre, which was new since her last visit. There was also mention for the art galleries of Cardiff and in particular the Third Floor Gallery on Bute Street.

On the Cardiff City Hotels site there’s a rather cheeky little video of the city centre, set to some rather bizarre music (I think it’s a chart song, but I don’t know what). Worth having a watch as the visitor makes his way through Cardiff to his hotel, including some video footage shot in St David’s.

Over on the Gadling travel blog there’s a write-up for three days in Cardiff by Collin Keeley who had been guest lecturing on social media at Oxford University. He has the following to say about the city centre:

Much of Cardiff city centre has been turned into wide pedestrian walkways. Queen Street is filled with shops, restaurants and nightclubs, while The Hayes is now home to the giant St. David’s Shopping Centre, which is home to upscale shops, an Apple store and more. It’s anchored by John Lewis department store, which is the second largest in the UK. Also in The Hayes is the new Cardiff Central Library, which has more than 90,000 books and regularly host’s art and music events. Along side these new structures are historic ones, like the beautiful St. John the Baptist Church, the oldest in the city dating back to 1490.

Although not a tourist, the lovely Helia Phoenix who runs We Are Cardiff, has started blogging for Groupon (the online site where you print off vouchers and get deals on stuff). She takes outsiders on a tour of the city and provides some great information.

Wrap up: Cardiff city centre on the web

Been some interesting blog posts that feature Cardiff city centre recently, so we thought we’d highlight them:

It’s house prices stupid…

So not directly about the centre of Cardiff, but this debate over on WalesHome about the housing market in the UK does focus a lot on Cardiff and particularly in the comments.

A first experience of Speedway in Cardiff

On Saturday 10th July the Millennium Stadium was taken over by British Speedway and so was the city centre, with thousands of fans coming to the Welsh capital. Read the VisitWales blog for one newly converted Speedway fans account.

My top ten Cardiff pubs (Part 1)

Local blogger DJ LeeKee gives us his favourite Cardiff pubs and features the Pen & Whig as one of his favourites. He’s trying to avoid city centre pubs (booo!) but he does pick out some gems.

Visiting Cardiff

It’s really interesting reading blog posts done by tourists about their experience of visiting the city centre. There’s praise indeed from Collin Kelley who is a big fan of the pedestrianisation during his recent trip to do a poetry reading at Old Orleans.

If you’ve seen a good blog post about Cardiff city centre recently or written one yourself, do let us know so we can link to it.

Licensing application: Holiday Inn, Castle Street

The Holiday Inn on Castle Street, is wanting to vary its alcohol and entertainments licence. Here’s the details and how you can comment on the proposed changes:

- To allow Callaghans (the pub on the ground floor of the hotel) to sell alcohol and provide entertainment on the external terrace area facing the River Taff. This would be until 10 PM daily.

- The hotel itself wants to be able to start serving alcohol from 8 AM daily, for example for champagne breakfasts (it can currently serve alcohol 24 hours a day direct to rooms via room service).

- The hotel wants to be able to host plays and indoor sports from 8 AM to 2 AM daily, for example murder mystery events and be able to serve late night refreshments from 11 PM to 5 AM daily as part of these events.

If you have a view on this licensing application you can submit your comments, by August 3rd 2010, to Licensing and Strategic Services, Cardiff Council, City Hall, Cathays Park, CF10 3ND. Or by email on licensing@cardiff.gov.uk

The paper application can be viewed between 9 AM and 4 PM at City Hall (just go through the main doors, turn right and go through the double doors on the right) to see a copy of the application.

You can also contact the local councillors for the area, classed as Cathays ward, who are able to make representations on behalf of residents.

Breakfast at Garlands

Tucked away in the the Duke Street Arcade is a Cardiff gem, Garlands. It also does possibly the best breakfast in the city.

After a heavy evening celebrating my birthday I wanted to take my family somewhere special for a good breakfast. I’d visited Garlands a few times for coffee and decided to give it a try for breakfast. I wasn’t disappointed.

The pancake breakfast is delicious. Scotch style pancakes, covered in layers of scrambled egg (really fluffy, good, scrambled eggs, none of the sloppy buttery crap that you get at Little Chef) and some very delicious bacon. You get syrup as well, which is delicious on the bacon.

The coffee is free refills (much needed for curing the hangover) and the general ambience of the place is great. You get table service and you can imagine it in the old days being wrung with smoke and people flicking through the day’s papers. It’s got that ‘coffee house’ feel of yester-year.

It’s reasonable in price as well, plus you know you’re going to get quality. So, if you fancy something a bit special for breakfast Garlands is the place to go.

Green drinks and Cardiff at night survey

An event and a survey to tell you about:

Show, Tell, Share at Zerodegrees
Tomorrow (July 13) will see a green drinks being held at Zerodegrees on Westgate Street. Environmental types will be getting together to discuss how to stop climate change, making communities more sustainable and other green things. More details on Transition Cowbridge. It all starts from 7 PM but you need to register to go along.

Cardiff at night
Cardiff Council have launched a survey asking for opinions about our fine capital city at night. Whether you enjoy a quiet evening out or a bracing shot-filled booze-fest you can give your opinion here. Well worth taking five minutes to give some feedback on an incredibly important economy for our area and city. More details on Welsh Icons and you can find the survey itself here.

Pica Pica gets reviewed

If you haven’t heard of Pintof45, it’s basically two guys going round and reviewing pubs and bars in Cardiff.

There’s no nonsense. They go in, order a drink and have a look around, then they tell you what it was like. No favours, no fawning, just straight forward reviewing.

It looks like Pica Pica on Westgate Street hasn’t come out too favourably, mainly the price of a pint of lager had the Pintof45 boys staggering (and not in the I’ve had too many and a great time way).

Have a read of the full review and let them know in the comments whether you agree or not.

Video: Castle Arcade empty shop gets used

There’s a fair few empty shops in Cardiff’s Victorian Arcades, a shame as they should be a bustling hive of independent stores and small chains.

The clever people over at thinkARK decided to take over one of the empty retail units to do something creative. Brilliant. For three days the shop space was transformed into an arty hub, with workshops, plays, films and some bonkers thing where people brought along their old shit and it was transformed into something useful.

A short video has been produced about the weekend, with a few talking heads giving their feedback. Have a watch and let’s hope they do this all over again.

Castle Street roadworks

The Castle Street roadworks are in full swing, it was a bad start as chaos reigned the first day – as no doubt everyone forgot they were happening and took their usual route.

Now it seems they’ve calmed down a bit as people have clicked on and are finding other ways to navigate around, or working through their lunch breaks so the dispersal from the city centre is staggered.

The pinch points and times are between 8.45 AM and 9.30 PM – after that there’s a very slight delay if you’re turning from Westgate Street onto Castle Street. If you miss the 4.45 PM to 5.30 PM slot it’s business as usual along Castle Street. Just got to use a bit of slyness when planning your journeys and you’ll whizz through.

Full details of the roadworks are on the Cardiff Council site. Work is due to finish in October, by which time St Mary Street should be pedestrianised and there will be a raised traffic crossing (like the one from end of Queen Street to the castle) from end of High Street to the Castle entrance. Also, according to traffic Cardiff traffic Tzar Delme Bowen it means you’ll be able to cycle through the Castle, out of the gate (while doing your best impression from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves) and zoom straight onto High Street/St Mary Street – providing of course they don’t ban cycling on that once it’s pedestrianised like they’ve done with Queen Street.

How are you finding the Castle Street roadworks? Do you think they will make a difference? Give us a shout in the comments below.