Has the city centre lost its charm?

[Taunton Blue Genie]

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!

[WJ99mobile]

It’s turned into just another city.

I don’t think it ever really had ‘charm’ though.

It’s quite a good place for a shop, some food and some entertainment

[NYCBlue]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

[splott parker]

And the pubs have reasonable prices, you can still get a pint for £2 in town, that’s very rare in many other UK cities.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

And the pubs have reasonable prices, you can still get a pint for £2 in town, that’s very rare in many other UK cities.

How charming.

[Harry Monk]

And the pubs have reasonable prices, you can still get a pint for £2 in town, that’s very rare in many other UK cities.

Can't get a pint for £2 in Porthcawl.

[Trigger]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

Sydney opera house....herds of wildebeest etc

And the pubs have reasonable prices, you can still get a pint for £2 in town, that’s very rare in many other UK cities.

I need to shop around. Whenever I seem to go into town these days I'm paying 4 quid + for watered down lager.

[BLUETIT]

I need to shop around. Whenever I seem to go into town these days I'm paying 4 quid + for watered down lager.

Rummer, Borough, Live Lounge + most of the gay bars, are as cheap as chips (not used the gay bars myself as yet, but others swear by them)

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

Rummer, Borough, Live Lounge + most of the gay bars, are as cheap as chips (not used the gay bars myself as yet, but others swear by them)

I'm sure that when I visited the Queen's Vaults, one afternoon in March of this year, I paid just under 2 quid for a pint.

[NYCBlue]

I need to shop around. Whenever I seem to go into town these days I'm paying 4 quid + for watered down lager.

How exactly would you water down lager? It comes in a sealed aluminium barrel, and is served through a CO2 pressurized tap. You'd have to pour a couple of inches of water into every pint you served. Unless someone knows better.

I'd be really interested to know if anyone does.

[BLUETIT]

How exactly would you water down lager? It comes in a sealed aluminium barrel, and is served through a CO2 pressurized tap. You'd have to pour a couple of inches of water into every pint you served. Unless someone knows better.

I'd be really interested to know if anyone does.

Put about an inch of water in a glass, place glass under the counter till a mug comes in

[xsnaggle]

You can get a tool that fits in the top of the barrel just like the line coupler. It has a lever on it that when pressed depressurises the barrel as quickly or slowly as you press. You can then unscrew the valve add 8 pints of water and a few it back up again. Reconnect the gas line and it depressurises the barrel. The pub landlords and WMC stewards in the N East do it all the time.
This is fact. The straightest landlord in Washington T&Wear showed me how to do it and offered to get me one of the things when I took over a pub for a short while . The landlord of my local sold about 80 barrels of beer later and cider a week. Imagine the income form 80 gallons of "beer" that didn't exist going into his sky every week? It was about 98 pence a pint for exhibition then. More like 3 50 now.
The reason it was only 8 pints per barrel was because it didn't water the product down enough to be discernable by brewery checks if they spot checked your cellar.

[ToTaL ITK]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

very true

[goats]

very true

Well, st Mary Street hasn’t really changed and neither have the arcades, the Hayes is nicer as is mill lane. In fact most streets have improved I think, park place, cathedral rd, we got the castle grounds and of course the bay. What more does one need in a city of 400,000.....

[ToTaL ITK]

Well, st Mary Street hasn’t really changed and neither have the arcades, the Hayes is nicer as is mill lane. In fact most streets have improved I think, park place, cathedral rd, we got the castle grounds and of course the bay. What more does one need in a city of 400,000.....

yes! i'm agreeing with NYC and with you too :D

[light up the darkness]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

Sydney opera house....herds of wildebeest etc

[NYCBlue]

Sydney opera house....herds of wildebeest etc

That's exactly what I was thinking when I when I was typing that.

[light up the darkness]

That's exactly what I was thinking when I when I was typing that.

can’t beat a good Basil reference

[Harry Monk]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

Have to agree with this. Mrs Monk (a Londoner) loves shopping in Cardiff becasue everything is right where you need it. She also regularly praises the shop staff who are very polite and helpful, compared with the shop staff in London who seem to be affronted that a customer should actually want them to help.

[Optimistic Nick]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

This.

very occasionally I work from my company's cardiff office, which is in town. Every time I do, I notice just how much there is in the city centre and how easy it is to get a lot done in the space of a lunch hour. It's great.

[The Bob Banker Spanker]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

Must be the only city with a stadium, castle and a fecking prison in its centre.

[MacAdder]

No charm? It's always had the arcades, loads of pubs, a huge rugby stadium, a compact shopping area, the museum and gardens and a giant ****ing castle. All within one square mile. What more do you want?

thats what i was thinking when i read the OP.
Cast your mind back to what The Hayes looked like not even ten years ago, it was a right shithole.
Same with Wood Street.
What I don't like though is the fact that much of town has gone through another major redevelopment, the last one being only a few (well 3 or 4) decades ago.
These new buildings will be around a fraction of the time that the older ones have, the majority of which I'm glad to say have been preserved.

Still plenty of charm but depressing seeing all the homeless lining the streets mind.

[splott parker]

How charming.

C’mon now TBG it’s common knowledge that the price of a pint is the international yardstick for any red blooded male 🍺🍺🍺🤪🤪🤪

[Taunton Blue Genie]

C’mon now TBG it’s common knowledge that the price of a pint is the international yardstick for any red blooded male ������������

I'm off for a couple of sweet sherries now...

[splott parker]

I'm off for a couple of sweet sherries now...

Pints of I trust👍 Might be a touch more than £2 though.🤪🤪