Tiger Bay to Cardiff City Centre

Following a summer of baking heat and drought, my September journey was accompanied by a smattering of rain. I started at Cardiff Bay, once the largest coal distribution port in the world but now a more serene and peaceful place, following the closure of the pits in the valleys of South Wales. 

I gazed across the glistening water towards Penarth from the memorial to Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed expedition to the South Pole, which set sail from Cardiff in 1910. Nearby, the Norwegian Church in Tiger Bay was my first heritage spot. This art gallery and café was once a Lutheran church patronised by visiting Scandinavian sailors when Cardiff was a great international port. As trade decreased so did the congregation and it was deconsecrated in 1974. One of the leading campaigners to save the church was Cardiff-born writer Roald Dahl. His parents were Norwegian and Dahl was baptised in the church, worshipped there in his younger days and kept the association for the rest his life.  

Fortified with coffee at the church, I set off around the water’s edge, pausing at the 2012 World Harmony Peace Statue to grasp poet and peace campaigner Sri Chinmoy’s torch and make a wish for world peace.  

Close by is The Senedd, home to the Welsh Parliament. This landmark building was designed by Lord Richard Rogers and Ivan Harbour and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on St David’s Day in 2006. Standing adjacent, and in contrast, is the red brick Pierhead Building. Built in the late 19th century in a French-Gothic Renaissance style, it has had many uses associated with the docks over the years and is now an exhibition and visitor centre. Around the corner is Roald Dahl Plass, a former dock, now a public plaza. dominated by the bronze-hued facade of the impressive Wales Millennium Centre, a home for the performing arts. 

Heading north through Butetown, I came to the bustling shopping area of Cardiff. The Victorian Arcades, with their independent shops and cafés, are worth exploring not just for the goods on offer but the style and architecture as well.  

Just beyond the shopping district lies Cardiff Castle, a wonderful mix of the ancient, the stylish and the quirky. The Animal Wall, which extends from the castle walls towards the river Taff, is home to fifteen carved stone animals peering at the passers-by on adjoining Duke Street. It was conceived by William Burges (1827-1881) but realised after his death. Burges was architect to and collaborator with the fabulously wealthy John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. Much of this influential landowning family’s wealth came from coal mining and trade from South Wales.  There are three very distinct historical periods within the castle walls. The Romans established a strategic fort on the site and part of its surviving walls can still be seen. The Norman twelve-sided keep dominates from its motte in the centre of the castle and a climb to the top for the view is well worth the effort. The Castle Apartments, on the west side, date in part from the 1420s and were restored and revitalised in the 1860s. The Bute family acquired the castle through marriage and it was the 3rd Marquess, with Burges, who developed it into the Gothic Revival marvel that it is today. This sumptuous house contains a veritable artistic menagerie, with animals decorating every room. The exotic Arab Room is breathtaking, the highlight being the honeycombed muqarnas vaulted ceiling, dripping with gold leaf.  

A short walk from the castle brought me to the imposing dome and columns of the National Museum of Wales. It houses a fine collection of natural history and works of art. I was greatly impressed by the Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams’ dystopian Y Tyrrau Mawr, a video using the ‘matte painting’ technique. It shows a magical night-to-day transformation of a large, imagined city nestled on the western slopes of Cadair Idris, the mountain in the southern reaches of the Snowdonia National Park. 

I returned to the city centre and had a delicious dinner at the highly recommended Cote restaurant in Mill Lane, before retiring to bed.