Cardiff Bay

[poliphilo]

We've been in Cardiff for the past two nights. Why Cardiff? Well, the Travel Lodge was offering us a rate of £15 per night provided we booked long enough in advance and- from glimpses of it in Dr Who and Torchwood- we'd gathered that the new Cardiff Bay development is really handsome. It is. And exciting. Even on a wet Sunday afternoon with nobody much about it feels like a place where things are going on.

But they certainly have weather in South Wales. I've been reading Peter Finch's Real Cardiff- a sort of a guide book cum memoir of bohemian life cum essay in psycho-geography. It's very good. One thing he leaves you in no doubt about is the essential dampness of the city.  While we were there we got hit by shower after shower.  I've never seen so many rainbows in my life. 

Comments

[clindau.livejournal.com]

I've never seen so many rainbows in my life.

I never get tired of rainbows.

The third photo reminds me of the monolith in 2001, only this one is more benevolent.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The monlith must have a name or a title but I can't find what it is.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

dampness

Now that's weird, because every time I go to Cardiff to visit the offspring we seem to have gorgeous weather down at the bay.

But it seems that whatever the weather, it's still photogenic.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I want to get inside the Assembly building. I took some exterior shots but what with the weather being so dull they really don't convey any sense of how extraordinary it is.

[jenny_evergreen]

That's a fantastic rainbow shot. How odd to think of you being right there at that thing I see on Torchwood all the time! *laugh*
I don't get out much. :P I love the building with the clock tower in the first photo, but I would. Cardiff looks nifty, if damp. I wish I could wear contacts, then I wouldn't care about the rain...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Cardiff is a rather ratty, run-down Victorian city with this amazing 21st century waterfront. Actually, I'm wrong to call it a Victorian city because it didn't achieve city status until 1955.

Dr Who has raised its profile no end.

[oakmouse]

I adore the red building. I also love the way you balanced it in the composition with the pier and the yellow boat.

The monolith is conceptually interesting, but it's an example of the sort of art that obviously was designed using a diorama. It would look much more impressive as a two-inch-high mock-up than it does in real life. The photo is great, though.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I think this is your monolith:

http://www.cardiffharbour.com/leisure/cardiffbay_artwater.htm

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's it. Thanks. I didn't see any running water though- unless you count the rain. Maybe they'd switched it off.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The red building is the old Victorian pierhead. in spite of being surrounded by amazing 21st century buildings it still dominates the Bay.

I think you're right about the monolith.

[oakmouse]

Although many Victorian buildings are terminally overdone, I have a soft spot for the red-brick-with-little-tower sorts of things. The town I grew up in (a railway transit point and market center in a largely rural region) boasted very few architecturally sophisticated buildings downtown. My favorite looks rather like the old Cardiff pierhead. It's the local morning newspaper's headquarters. You can see it here:
http://www.spokanephotos.com/509/index.php?showimage=105

I think it formed my tastes when I was a child. *g*

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's nice.

I'm not a huge fan of Victorian architecture, but it usually makes for an interesting skyline- all those towers and turrets and pinnacles!

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Those are great photos! I wish you knew what the last picture might be. Was it a sculpture?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a monolith faced with highly polished, reflective metal. It's one of many examples of public art dotted around the site.

[goddlefrood.livejournal.com]

It's changed a bit since I was last there by the looks of it. We used to go across to Cardiff infrequently (or at least I think we did) when we lived in Bristol. I left Bristol when I was 7, so could be wrong. I do recognise it from Doctor Who. I've only seen the first new series with Chris Eccleston so far, but will track down the other series eventually. One of the pirates out here's bound to have it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The show that really features the Bay is Torchwood (the Torchwood HQ is supposedly located under the square in front of the Millennium Hall). Unfortunately Torchwood is crap.

[goddlefrood.livejournal.com]

There was an episode in the first series, iirc, that featured something that looked suspiciously like the building with the clock featured in one of your photos. Torchwood had received some praise in certain quarters; I'll have no chance to see if it's a load of balls for a while. I expect it would be, like so many spin offs.

[momof2girls.livejournal.com]

Lovely rainbow picture! And is the flat thing in the last picture a building or a solar panel? I can't tell.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's a column- about 50 foot high, covered in mirrored panels, rounded on one side and flat on the other.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

As always, amazing shots.