Quote Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie View Post
I'm on a three day course in Newport but decided to stay overnight in Cardiff city centre. After today's session in Nyoops I got back to the hotel an hour before the shops closed and walked my colleague around the arcades, the market and St Mary Street to give her a feel of the place.
I still like to old market but everywhere else seems to dominated by gentrified shops and cafés (in the case of the arcades) and national restaurant/bar chains elsewhere.
Call me an old out-of-touch curmudgeon but I feel that the place has lost a lot of charm and character.
Yours,
TBG
Wearing a tin foil hat and eating powdered egg.
P. S. Discovering the stuffed bear in the tobacconist's (that I remember from my childhood) was a treat!
Whilst I understand where you are coming from I am afraid that the national brands are probably the only ones who can afford the rents and the cheap student mini tower blocks the only growth industry.
I am, sadly, old enough to remember Cardiff city centre in the 70’s where there was still car parking on rough ground where the St David’s centre now is and the Lious represented fine dining and Pillars was considered exciting.
Whilst the modern city may have changed it retains the Castle, old University buildings and the arcades and the modern stuff may be identikit building but in the main it is an improvement on the centre of my youth.