Things you remember as a kid visiting Cardiff Town centre

Remember using my folks family ticket they'd buy for using cardiff bus on a Saturday afternoon to go to town to play bingo at the gala bingo on St Mary street. I'd take a mate with me into town with them, they'd bugger off to bingo and we'd just jump on every single bus route over the course of a few weeks riding from town and then back, until we had to be back at the bingo to pick them both up. 😂 😂

Water discos on Saturday afternoons at The Empire Pool

Roller disco every Saturday at Sofia Gardens pavilion

Seeing Tommy Steele "live" at the Odeon (i think). Support act from America "Eddie Bell and the Bell Boys" performing "giddy-Up a ding-dong" 'onest.

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Originally Posted by Gofer Blue

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

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Me too. School cap to go with them.

The tiny newsagent opposite the castle with the often open trapdoor to the basement - last stop before jumping on the 61 home - armed with stink bombs from the oriental shop

Think a lot on here would find this site interesting

https://www.cardiffians.co.uk/galleries/citycentre/

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Originally Posted by Elwood Blues

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

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You're obviously a contemporary of mine. I "sang" in that choir. We practiced for months. All I remember is that we sang "Kalinka," a Russian folk song about a gooseberry. My mother hated those trolley buses. I remember her tut-tutting when that pole came off the wires, as it often did. I have not see the bus conductor mentioned on this thread. Honorable mention to that old warhorse.

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Originally Posted by jimmyscoular

So many. Egg and chips at Astey's. Bag of cockles from the fishmonger at the entrance to Cardiff Market. Faggots and peas upstairs. Also upstairs, buying a goldfish and taking it home in a little plastic bag. Scary stuffed bear. Where was that? A growing awareness, as the years passed, that the Prince of Wales theatre was a naughty place. That cold shower I had to race through before entering the Empire Pool. The old central library — marble everywhere, spiral staircases and gloomy floors. Scary public toilets in The Hayes. Whatever-you-want and chips on Caroline Street. Lears bookstore. Corpus Christi. Watching the Daleks roll down Queen Street. I'm sure I'm forgetting a thousand things.

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Stuffed bear was at the entrance to a tobacconists on the corner of St May Street and Wood street near where the Prince of Wales pub is now. I think there used to be a cinema next to there once upon a long time ago.

The tobacconist then became a Body Shop

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Originally Posted by The Bloop

Pick n Mix in Woolworths.
The restaurant in Littlewoods overlooking the shop where you could get a 5-item cooked breakfast for 80p or a 7 item mega for £1.
Traffic on Queen Street.
A grotto like clothes shop called 2007
A games arcade, I think in Castle Arcade
Buying darts flights from a little shop on Caroline Street but really having a sneak at the adult videos at the back of the shop

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The shop was Fry’s

Newcastle brown ale in the New Moon Club on the Hayes up a rickety wooden staircase

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Originally Posted by BLUETIT

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 :hehe:

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Enough of the wife already.

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Originally Posted by light up the darkness

Newcastle brown ale in the New Moon Club on the Hayes up a rickety wooden staircase

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Along with a crusty hot dog that was part of the entry price/membership. I remember the pool of urine that would accumulate around the raised stage area after escaping from the bogs.

Toy Mic Trev

I'm enjoying this thread. So many memories coming back.

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Originally Posted by uncle bob

Roller disco every Saturday at Sofia Gardens pavilion

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There was also a roller rink on cathays terrace

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Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie

Along with a crusty hot dog that was part of the entry price/membership. I remember the pool of urine that would accumulate around the raised stage area after escaping from the bogs.

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Oh fk me yes. I’d forgotten about that. Thank you:thumbup:

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Originally Posted by cardiff55

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!

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3 cinemas in Queen street - - depending on how old you are :hehe:
odeon, gaumont capitol

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Originally Posted by xsnaggle

3 cinemas in Queen street - - depending on how old you are :hehe:
odeon, gaumont capitol

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ABC, Odeon and Capital

ABC had 3 screens so technically five

The saspirella shop in the Morgan Arcade,
Trolley buses,
Buses with open platforms on the back. (I remember one morning 3 of us watching in shock as a school mate Jonny Morris slipped tying to jump onto the platform of the No 7 going down Queen St didn't let go of the bar and got dragged past the top rank behind the bus)
Saucer of cockles with my dad in the market
Pick and mix in BHS on the corner of The Friary
The open feeder down Churchill Way
Snooker Hall in Charles Street
Not in the Centre but:
Playing football every sunday afternoon in the school field for Glan Taf. Anyone who turned up could play and we often had 16+ a side. We just kept making the pitch bigger.
The snooker hall in the old cinema at the top of Gabalfa hill next to the library (Both demolished for the interchange along with over 100 houses)
Saturday league football on pitches like Splott Park, Grangetown Rec, Ely Race course.
Going round all the Christmas toy fair in the shops we couldn't afford to buy anything in.

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Originally Posted by Blue Tone

Sarsaparilla Bar in the Arcade.

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Yep you beat me to it.

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Originally Posted by light up the darkness

Newcastle brown ale in the New Moon Club on the Hayes up a rickety wooden staircase

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I took a bird up there once ~1972, a bit of a dive.

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Originally Posted by uncle bob

Anyone remember that guy with long blonde frizzy hair who used to wheel a big white piano and play it always outside Habitat on Hills Street by the Hayes Island snack bar?

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Asteys
The Sarsaparilla shop
The Capitol
Secombes
Greyfriars
Top Rank

Allders
Guildford Crescent swimming pool

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Originally Posted by bluesince 52

Top rank Saturday morning straight into wimpeys for egg burger those were the days didn’t cop on as they might have wanted one aswel

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Loved an egg burger.

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Originally Posted by NYCBlue

Loved an egg burger.

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They used to cook the eggs in metal rings on a hotplate so they fitted the buns perfectly. I've got the modern equivalent of them (rubberised) and think of Asteys every time I use them.

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Originally Posted by Taffy Blue in Berkshire

I took a bird up there once ~1972, a bit of a dive.

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But did you take her out again? (Of the Blue Moon I mean lol)/

Being dragged around m&s by my mum and hating it. But then... Sausage beans and chips in BHS cafe making up for it.

The 3d simulator thing in Virtual Reality which looked amazing as a 10 year old but I've no idea what was going on when I tried it

Going to a butchers to buy meat in an arcade. It sounds positively Victorian now

The Gadget Shop when the capitol arcade opened

The running track in David Morgan's sports dept

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Originally Posted by B. Oddie

The thrill of all the lovely food in Pillars.

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Going to pillars was always a treat. Used to get so busy around Christmas time with valleys people. The food used to be great.

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Originally Posted by insider

Jothams
Rhoopa jeans
Marcross
Restaurant upstairs in BHS
Capitol Cinema
Pet shop upstairs in the Market
Gwyns
Charles Street night clubs
Military tattoo in the castle
Bevans motor cycles by the Angel
Mr Nudge
Model train shop in Castle arcade
Dominions arcade with the cafe that had Scramble and Space invaders in it.
Spillers and Buffalo records
Hayes Bridge Road pre the "new" library toys are us and the ice rink
Central boys club
Empire pool
Guilford crescent

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Model train shop in Castle arcade... That place was amazing.

Not the city centre but I miss the Monico cinema.

Magical place. Was the first cinema my grandmother went to in the 30s and the first cinema my father visited when we was a kid in the late 40s / early 50s

Sad when it closed in the early 2000s.

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Originally Posted by xsnaggle

3 cinemas in Queen street - - depending on how old you are :hehe:
odeon, gaumont capitol

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Park Hall cinema around the corner. First one to have 3D, with the glasses.

I think the film was How the West Was Won

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Originally Posted by Taffy Blue in Berkshire

I took a bird up there once ~1972, a bit of a dive.

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Understatement!

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Originally Posted by J R Hartley

Toy Mic Trev

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The sound of his singing once reminded me that my cat needed to be spayed. Trev will forever be sorely missed.

Two lanes of traffic on Queen St and the narrow pavements on either side heaving with shoppers on a Saturday, many walking outside the kerbs in the gutter with cars, vans & buses whizzing past.

Going into The Empire pool and giving your ticket to an old small guy with a bald head who would then give you a metal cage which had a rack on bottom to put your shoes, then you'd hang your clothes over the rest of it like a massive caged coat hanger.
Then the walk through freezing cold water to clean your feet you'd have to do before you reached the pool

The Prince of Wales cinema adverts for films such as...
Attachment 4296

farmhouse grill in the great british burger or wimpeys...
spillers for my hip hop fix i still know ashley to this day the grand daughter who owns it now
going to see santa in david morgan or howells...
going to look at the raleigh burners and mongoose diamond back kuwahara bob haro iron horse and other bmx in the bike shops
beaties toy shop they had like a train set running round the shop up high and open toys so you could play before you buy
and lots more

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Originally Posted by elytillidie

The Prince of Wales cinema adverts for films such as...
Attachment 4296

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Fantastic :thumbup:

Those posters, even the titles of the films, used to do it for me as a kid in those days.

The Russ Meyer films, Vixen, valley of the ultravixens I remember.
Never got to watch any in the cinema itself but caught up on them since :biggrin:

Often looked around the inside since whilst supping a pint in Wetherspoons wondering.
Beautiful building.

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Originally Posted by elytillidie

The Prince of Wales cinema adverts for films such as...
Attachment 4296

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What was the name of the cinema 2 doors down, from the Prince of Wales ?

Began with a G, but not the Gaiety or Gaumont. Grey matter not working.