As a child I loved walking past The Castle walls looking at the stone statue animals on top.
+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
The Capitol for films but also the visits of all the top world acts to the venue. The Lexington, American style restaurant near the Cap, great burgers, the paper seller on the steps of the Capitol, buses pulled up right outside, cracking business for him. Rows of chocolate & amber football buses lined up on Wood St prior to every home game. Kwiksnaks, the skinheads hang out opposite Boots on Wood St, The Kensington (also known as The Happening) on St Mary St, where Kiwis is now, a West Indian hang out with reggae and Tamla blasting out. The chains on the bollards running along the castle lawn, just couldn’t resist swinging every one as a kid when walking past. Guildford Crescent, three swimming pools, Mixed, Boys & Girls. Dumfries Place, every old large terraced house seemed to be a solicitors office the whole length of the bus stops. The Centreplan 70 building near Wyndham Arcade on St Mary St with mock ups and plans of how great Cardiff was going to look by 1970!!!! The Prince Albert pub on Working St with a tree growing right through the middle of it. The huge map by Kingsway toilets, knobs on the side to roll it up and pinpoint various parts of the city. Blackfriars ruins on Greyfriars Rd, I think it was Blackfriars, the remnants of an ancient house. So much more I s’pose.
As a child I loved walking past The Castle walls looking at the stone statue animals on top.
The smell of the brewery on Saturday afternoon.
Horrible smell
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.
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/
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.
Newcastle brown ale in the New Moon Club on the Hayes up a rickety wooden staircase
Toy Mic Trev
I'm enjoying this thread. So many memories coming back.
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.