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

[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!