City Centre

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The church of St John the Baptist has stood in the centre of Cardiff for over 800 years. The Pinnacled Somerset Tower built in 1473 dominated the main city shopping area.

Cardiff owes much of its history to the Industrial Revolution of the 1790's, which stimulated mining in the valleys of South Wales. It also gave rise to the building of the Glamorganshire Canal in 1794, which brought iron and coal down from the valleys. This rapidly increasing iron and coal trade was also the catalyst for the construction of a number of docks during the 1830's. Bute East Dock (now known as Atlantic Wharf) was built in 1855.

SA Brain & Co Ltd is Wales' leading drinks and hospitality company. Founded in 1882 by Samuel Arthur Brain and his uncle Joseph Benjamin Brain, Brains now has over 250 pubs across south Wales, the West Country and central Cardiff, where the brewery first started.

Black Horse, provider of consumer lending products, was set up in Cardiff in 2001. The company was created to consolidate 2 of Lloyds TSB Group's personal finance operations under one unified brand.

Gorsedd Gardens, established when the new City Hall was opened in 1905, has as its focus the sandstone blocks of a druidic circle. The central alter stones are now gone but the ring of red, raggedy sentinels, marked with drill holes from their erection still stand.

David Morgan & Co, in The Hayes, Cardiff opened in 1879, catering mainly for the drapery trade. He opened a second shop in St Mary St in 1898 accessible from The Hayes by way of the Morgan Arcade (initially called the New Central Arcade, begun in 1896, completed 1899), which ran parallel to the Royal Arcade.

Built in the 1980's over the former streets of Paradise Place, Ebeneezer Street, Cross Street and most of Frederick and Union Streets, it was Cardiff's first big indoor haven for shoppers.

Cardiff Central Market was opened on 8 May 1891 by the Lady Mayoress of the day, the Marchioness of Bute. A plaque to commemorate the occasion can still be seen near the Trinity Street entrance. The main market hall had stalls down each side and on either side of four aisles, with a balcony on all four sides of the hall. In all, 349 stalls were provided in the original layout, ranging from simple open counters to lock ups.

Since it's opening in June 1999, the Millennium Stadium has welcomed over 1.3 Million visitors per year. With the first retractable roof in the UK, the Stadium is a multi-purpose, all round venue.

Callaghan Square at Night

  

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