Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

[MOZZER2]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Paradise Garage.

cheers latcher yes its come back to me now . was a bit scary walking in there as a whippasnapper

some nice photos from the WOL featuring alternative music nights in Cardiff just after the punk scene . was a regular in Neros for alternative music nights .great times

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/amazing-pictures-80s-alternative-clubs-13502795

as for the footie remembering getting off the bus as a kid in town when Sunderland came down think it was there promotion season 1979 and they were thousands upon thousands of them and walked to ninian park and I didn't say a word ! in them days everyone wore a scarf and tudor road was a sea of red and white . wasn't too many cardiff fans about !

[JumpersforGoalposts]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Trolley buses Ah! jumpers for goalposts - oh and Asteys flakey sausage rolls.

You just beat me to Trolley buses!

[cardiff55]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Are you thinking of Bud Morgan's in one of the arcades?

Beatties was next door to the Rose & Crown, as said where the Sony shop is now. They did model railways, model cars, kits, Subutteo etc.

Bud Morgan was the same but in Castle Arcade.


Lots of records shops too.
Traffic in Queen Street.,
Two cinemas in Queen Street.
Mackross , where St David's is now.
The Hayes before the knocked it down and built ST David's 2
Lears bookshop, later Ian Allan bookshop.
John Menzies opposite WH Smith.
Pubs.
The gun shop!

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Has anyone mentioned 'Sound Advice', the record shop that was staffed with groovy little hippy chicks wearing cheesecloth and smelling of patchouli oil?

I see that someone asked where the stuffed bear was and that was in the tobacconists on the ground floor of the building that housed (and still houses the Prince of Wales). The bear has been moved to one of the shops in the arcades.

Talking of the Prince of Wales, it was a family cinema when I was a kid and the last film I remember seeing there of that ilk was Disney's 'Song of the South', which now seems to have been banned to to racial stereotyping of the Deep South - hence the absence of 'Zippety Doo Dah' in recent years.

The cinema has two changes of character thereafter and I'm not sure in what order. It screened Indian films (and my brother and I sneaked in and watched one of them) and a soft-porn house (and on one occasion extolling in their huge billboard Chesty Morgan's 72 inch boulders. Now it's a cheap slop-shop of the Wetherspoon's variety, of course.

As faras other memories go, I remember the smell of juicy fruit on the terraces of the Grange End, the Kardomah Café (or have I imagined that?) and the Wimpy Bar being the height of sophistication for us oiks.

[Cyncoed Slumdog]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

As a kid? You must have had very liberal parents!

😳 I obviously missed that element of the question. 🤭

[Cyncoed Slumdog]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Sarsaparilla Bar in the Arcade.

I'm revising my answer to concur with the above - plus Oxo crisps with the sarsaparilla.

[Gofer Blue]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

As faras other memories go, I remember the smell of juicy fruit on the terraces of the Grange End, the Kardomah Café (or have I imagined that?) and the Wimpy Bar being the height of sophistication for us oiks.

Oh it was real alright. I can still smell the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans wafting up onto the pavement opposite the castle. As a little boy that was wildly exotic to me, having grown up with tea and post-war Camp "coffee" (yuk). Does anyone remember that stuff now I wonder?

[Elwood Blues]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Howells and Morgan’s
The bomb site type car parks where the St David’s centre is.
Empire Pool diving boards.
The Lious and
Buying concert tickets at Spillers.
Orange buses and a bus stop to go with them.
The old cricket ground at Sophia Gardens and the concert hall next to it.

Forget the Orange buses I remember the old maroon and cream buses (and trolley buses)!! I remember when they changed colour back in the mid sixties. Cardiff Bus started to replace the old double deckers with open platforms at the back with the entrance doors at the front. They had buses in three colours, two shade of orange and a turquois and asked the public to choose which would be the new bus colour. One of the orange colours was chosen.

I remember the Sophia Gardens ground being built and the old Cardiff Arms Park cricket ground. This was where Cardiff Rugby is now.

The old Sophia Gardens Pavilion was demolished after 4ft of snow brought the roof and most of the walls down in 1982. I say old but it was only just over 30 years old when the collapse happened followed by the subsequent demolition of the rest.

There used to be a big concert in the Pavilion with the year 6 kids (Standard 4 as they were in those days) from all the schools in Cardiff singing in a massive choir The boys wore white shirts red ties and grey shorts and the girls white shirts and skirts ( I think the girls wore red ties as well)

No long trousers until High School in those days, and even then in the first year many parents ( including mine!) still made their boys wear shorts It was the middle of the first year before i persuaded mine to let me change into long trousers

[Gofer Blue]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Someone has mentioned the brewery smell. I'd forgotten that - the smell of hops was overpowering when the train came into the station. Wasn't there the name Hancocks in huge letters down the side of the chimney?

[Gofer Blue]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

No long trousers until High School in those days, and even then in the first year many parents ( including mine!) still made their boys wear shorts It was the middle of the first year before i persuaded mine to let me change into long trousers

Same here. I had to go the whole of the first year though!

[Elwood Blues]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Oh it was real alright. I can still smell the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans wafting up onto the pavement opposite the castle. As a little boy that was wildly exotic to me, having grown up with tea and post-war Camp "coffee" (yuk). Does anyone remember that stuff now I wonder?

My parents always had a bottle of Camp coffee in the food cupboard. I can't remember it ever being used, Nescafe was the coffee my mum preferred (Never Maxwell House, my Mum couldn't stand it for some reason)

I remember the Kardomah. I recall it being next to Boots in Queen Street and it was knocked down when Boots was modernised and extended. I recall it was a wood panelled building with lots of wood inside as well

There was also the Cadena Cafe in Duke Street next to the Rummer Tavern

[BLUETIT]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

The Wrestling at Sophia Gardens or the Guildhall on a Friday night

The Greyhound racing on a Saturday evening, before going after the other dogs down the Top Rank

[Elwood Blues]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Judging by my album collection I bought mostly in Buffalo as quite a lot of them still have the price stickers. Most are £4.99 from the early 80s which shows that music was a lot more expensive relatively in those days.

I recall when LP's were 12 shillings and 6 pence (62 1/2 p in todays money) Singles were 6 shillings and 8p (about 33p!). This was back in the 60's

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

As a young kid always getting dragged around Howells and David Morgan’s although the Toy department in one of them did a decent range of Star Wars toys that kept me and my brother quiet.

As a pre teen/teenager venturing about on my own Olympus Sports.

Cardiff is much more pleasing on the eye than it was in the 70s/80s from my memory.

There was a pub on Queen Street, Taff Bar? My dad would sneak in when parenting for me and my brother. When I got to the age of being to be able to go in there it was gone.

Think that pub was probably the Taff Vale.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

The bear in the tobacconists.