Bay Criticism

Having voiced my criticism about the Bay in other posts, I’d thought (for better or worse) to write a post on how I think the Bay could have been so much better. I should note, I’m not a town planner, so I have no professional axe to grind here. I’m just a humble engineer who has lived in a lot of different cities around the world. There may have been many reasons why these ideas weren't taken forward. But I’ve seen what works and I just want my home town to be awesome.

The problem with the Bay redevelopment is symptomatic of most developments in Wales: too ambitious in some areas and not ambitious enough in others. For the Bay, it was too ambitious with regards to the size of the area to be redeveloped, leaving many sites unfinished and allowing the city to be picky with proposals. It was also not ambitious in other ways because it didn’t really present a vision for Cardiff going forward. In many respects, it detracts from the city because with all the residential developments along Bute East Dock and Lloyd George Avenue, it doesn’t have much life during the day or offer the CBD anywhere to grow.

Below would have been my starting point. I don’t believe any of these proposals are outlandish or ridiculous, nor would they have required massive amounts of additional capital, perhaps just more time to get the right sort of developers on board. Sadly, we’re too far down the line to achieve some of these, but for others, there’s still time and they would dramatically improve Cardiff.

Rail Improvements (in Red) – I would create a new central train station between East Tyndall St and the existing line. Why? Because this is where there an existing fork in the line between tracks that go down to the bay that allows you to connect without have to build new lines (which requires more money and aggrevation from Network Rail). It also wouldn’t take much to build an extension from Queens St to link all of the Valleys lines with this new station. So you immediately position your major station at the centre of the two main rail arteries: From the Valleys in the North to the Bay in the South and from Newport in the East to Swansea in the West. There are also many other reasons:
1. Cardiff Central Station is a listed building and Network Rail have already stated they have problems with trying to upgrade it. In their opinion it is not fit for a modern capital city. To be fair, it wasn't designed for a large city in mind.
2. Cardiff Central is not in the best place. You can’t get to the bay from Central, you have to backtrack to Queens St. Re- my points above.
3. Where is the growth? Cardiff and Newport are going to link, shifting the centre of the city to the east.
4. Gives the opportunity to create a trully integrated rail and bus station and also utilise light rail. This should be the central hub for our Metro.
5. You could then turn the existing Cardiff Central into a match day/event station.

By building a small station down at the roundabout on the A4234 and including some short extensions, you can create a loop system which would include the Existing Bay station and the existing Central Station and then wider Cardiff area. Again, this could be done in light-rail.

Sports Village (in Orange) – This is an ideal spot for an International Sports Village. Why? It’s so close to an existing train station and it follows the river nicely from the parks, Sophia Gardens, Arms Park etc. flowing through the city. What would have I put here? Definitely the pool, ice hockey rink etc. and a 30,000 seater football/rugby stadium. This latter development would bring the Cardiff City fans into centre whilst allowing the Blues fans better facilities without leaving the city centre. This would allow the redevelopment of the now Principality Stadium’s North Stand. WIN, WIN, WIN!

Creative Quarter (in Dark Green) – This, sadly, isn’t really possible anymore. This area used to have some very significant mill structures and other industrial buildings that would have (if structurally sound) made fantastic conversion projects for housing creative industries. Basically a cluster like The Maltings and similar to many other dockside redevelopments. This would have provided some much needed character, which is something that is sadly lacking.

Mix Development (in Purple) – At the moment, this entire area is currently residential, with exception the Brains’ The Wharf. It’s not terrible as it is, but it needs more life and character. What I don’t understand is why the Central Link road was built so close to the Bute East Dock wall? It’s utterly bonkers! Why didn’t they build this road back, allowing a water front development on the east side? Ideally one that made a feature of the preserved cranes (which are currently stuck in the middle of nowhere) with some cafes and a rowing club to bring some much needed live to the water. A few pedestrian bridges across the old dock wouldn't go astray either, nor would moorings for canal boats, especially if some of the linking canals were still in place.

Government (in Yellow) – Some people like the Parliament building and that’s fair enough. Personally I don’t and it looks even worse with the boring red-brick building stuck on the back with very little thought. I would have put it in the Coal Exchange, as originally planned and spent of fraction of the money. What could have worked well would have been a modern extension, something along the lines of the Reichstag. That would have been a power architectural statement of marrying the old Wales with a new beginning.

It could have also meant that many of the surrounding buildings could have been adapted for Government offices, bringing life back to them and this area of the city. Instead, they sit there rotting.

Arts & Entertainment (in Light Green) – The waterfront is an ideal place for bars, mariners etc. and I love the Millennium Centre. Now that is a great piece of modern architecture! My only criticism is that a waterfront spot could have really altered the front. That and the name! Let’s drop this “Wales Millennium Centre” crap and call it what is it, “Cardiff Opera House”. I'd also like to see an art gallery in Cardiff that is separate from the museum. This could have been an ideal place.

A1 Office Space (in Pink) – These areas should be for your Central Square / Capital Quarter type developments. And most importantly, a bloody convention centre!

Resi/Mixed (in Blue) – These areas should be used for mixed residential, with some social housing.

In my opinion, these few changes, which wouldn’t have cost much more money than what has already been spent in Cardiff, would have dramatically altered the city. They would have truly linked Cardiff with its waterfront by extending the CBD and providing effective public transport links. It would have concentrated the money and developments close to the city centre and then you move outwards. The biggest cost would have been a new central station, but in the long run, I think it would have paid off.

There's a lot of sense in some of those suggestions but it's probably worth revisiting a little bit of history to understand why the Bay has developed in the way it has. The first thing to realise is that we're not talking of a single planned development but of a series of schemes, some less successfull than others.

The main clearance of the Bay took place in the second half of the 1960s. There's a very good BBC programme from the time here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00hr9wv



In retrospect, of course, we all lament the scale of the clearances and no doubt Loudoun Square would today be a second Pontcanna had it survived. Other major losses were the Powell Dyffryn Building, numerous fine Victorian chapels, churches and pubs, and a lot of warehouses and industrial buildings that today would be very chic appartments.

The surprising thing is that post-clearences nothing much was done. The new social housing went into steep decline, surrounded as it was by derelict land and boarded-up buildings. The only major new development in the Bay in the 1970s was the not great Industrial & Maritime Museum and some aditional social housing.

The first attempt at a comprehensive scheme was drawn up South Glamorgan County Council, the WDA and the Welsh Land Authority in the early 1980s. This plan only covered the area bordered by the SW Main Line, the river Taff, the Bute East Dock and the waterfront - essentially Butetown Ward.

Key to the plan was the building of a barrage at the mouth of the river Taff near what's now Hamadryad Park to ensure permenant high water. This was later superceded by the far more ambitious plans for the current barrage. Some elements of the scheme did go ahead though notably the Butetown Link Road, South Glamorgan County Hall and the various developments on the western side of the East Dock.

This is what CBDC inherited in 1987. Some of the elements of the old scheme were locked into place and, unlike in England, planning powers remained with the LA rather than being transferred to to the Development Corporation.

In its early years the CBDC used an awful lot of its political capital to ensure that the PDR went underground after crosing the Taff. This was undoubtedly the right thing to do but it took up an awful lot of time and effort and meant that little attention was paid to some other problems inherited from the previous scheme. Sadly a number of interesting buildings had been cleared along the PDR route before the tunnel was given the go-ahead.

Other mistakes were made in the understandable pursuit of 'early wins'. Chief of these was the closure of the WIMM before an alternative site had been identified and a wilful blindness when it came to the quality of some commercial developments such as Mermaid Quay and the Red Dragon Centre. Hopefully the life-spans of those developments will be relatively short.

CBDC was probably wound up prematurely and its achievments were curtailed by the obstruction of the Cardiff Bay Barrage Bill by Rhodri Morgan and others, the endless Opera House saga and continuing friction between the Corporation and the local authorities. Therwas also a failure to forsee the rebirth of the valleys rail-network and the future importance of public transport.

Having said all that, if you looked at the Bay today from a 1987 perspective it's transformation is impressive, if far from perfect.

While we are criticising each others cities!!