These pics are the hugh.james propsal i.think. It might be something else that gets.built now with different people in control.

now that the politburo are running the show if phase 1 starts this year I'll show my arse in Queen Street

The demolition has started on the old warehouses. Big chunk missing from one of them.

Bastards

Is that the building next to the bridge? By ING?

Is there even a plan??

Oh FFS!! Why don't we just demolish everything pre-war and pretend that nothing existed before Cardiff became a city!!

I imagine a hideous hybrid of red brick, breezeblock, timber cladding, metal and glass going up here with lots of space that there's no-one to fill!!

I always thought this corner could have been a great little area by refurbishing the warehouse and making use of the railway arches like they do in Leeds & Manchester. It is symptomatic of a lack of imagination and innovation as well as economics. I really doubt whether an old Victorian warehouse like this would have been demolished had it been in many other significant cities in the UK.

I used to think Cardiff did not have much old warehouses/factory buildings to begin with, due to the nature of the docks (railway lines right up to the edges) unlike other cities such as Liverpool and even Gloucester. But then I saw some great old aerial shots which made me despair at the thought of what we could have had with these and the old canal/dock system still in place. I will try and post them.

Imagine Lloyd George avenue if these were all still there!

Picture from britain from above website

No it doesn't there is mostly parks and greenery over the filled in dock.

Lloyd George Avenue used to be called Collingdon Road. I distinctly remember walking down it back in the late nineties after having been to the UCI. I wish that I had taken some photos of it, but that was in an age when it wasn't normal to carry a camera and to take snaps of everything everywhere. I remember the street being cordoned off and being mega run down, but hey , I'd just moved from Bradford so industrial dereliction was nothing new to me. Many of the buildings in the picture had by then disappeared/fallen down, so it wasn't all demolition for the sake of it.

Note how Bute street looks a lot more architecturally uniform in that shot than it does now. Arguably a greater loss than Collingdon Road?

I remember Collingdon Road, it was full of lock ups and warehouses. At the time I thought wouldn't it good to start again. Now I wish the planners had a bit more foresight.

also, Bute Street looks interesting in that photo, the houses running on its west side look a lot better (architecturally at least) than what is there now.

Here are some more from britain from above - Probably not the right thread for these but nevermind.

Spot the one or two buildings that remain of Cardiff's industrial heritage

Nice find, kudos.

A few little bits of interesting info in this article:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/cardiffonline/cardiff-news/2013/02/18/cardiff-council-leaders-urged-to-come-clean-over-43m-war-chest-91466-32834018/

Main ones:

£43m set aside by the council for the enterprise zone (which seems more south side focused these days). Breakdown:

"The budget’s capital programme includes £3.25m next year (2013/14) for the zone, followed by £13.8m in 2014/15 and £11.1m in 2015/16. It’s also proposed to borrow a further £15m in two years’ time."

"And when asked by Coun Williams when any details would be made public, Coun Goodway said: “Soon, but not very soon.” "


and this chunk on the bus station:

As reported on Saturday, the administration has conceded there will be no new station open before the 2017 polls, but they hope to have started construction by then.

Coun Cook told councillors a “change of mind set” was needed about what was needed to meet the city’s future transport needs.

He said the previous administration’s plans for a £10m new bus station would have been “obsolete almost as soon as it was completed”.

The council, Coun Cook said, is now focusing on a “multi-modal transport hub” which “seamlessly” connects the bus, railway and proposed metro services.

“We are in a state of flux with some very exciting proposals ahead,” he told councillors.

“I think it’s highly unlikely that there will be something that people will call a bus station in 2017, but we will have at the very least some firm plans and proposals on the ground. The important thing is to have a vision of what we require.”

I remember reading something in the last week or so saying the council were taking an interest in the Seren site. Perhaps they are considering some kind of transport hub idea there.

Whatever I was reading suggested bids for the site were happening around now and a few groups were interested. It included a deadline for when this needed to be completed, which was quite soon.

Obviously change in ownership does not = building.

43m might be a hell of a lot of money, but to me it doesn't seem enough to create a decent enterprise zone even if they were to use it all on the one scheme, let alone everything else they intend to use that "war chest" for. I'm assuming the enterprise zone would contain some exciting high rise proposals.

I think it is the Welsh Assembly Government that is funding a lot of the money for the Enterprise Zone and not the council. Phase one is due to start this year for 100,000sq office block south side

not sure which thread to put this in, however it seems as if Cardiff Council are being offered the land at Callaghan Square. Whilst this is good in theory I also think it is a waste of taxpayers money having two governments purchasing the land then repurchasing it. all of those consultancy fees for agreeing the deal the 2nd time could have been avoided if CCC just bought the land in the first place.

I wonder what they would do with it? What does the Council need?

Somewhere a council green paper exists with very elaborate plans for this space. All very aspirational, but not necessarily deliverable. It was discussed on this forum some time back. I think it was the first time the idea of turning Trade Street into a heritage area was floated, as well as a new alignment for the roads around there.

I believe there was talk of A) building office; b) building a convention centre/arena; c) building new council offices to free up land at existing County Hall for housing/convention/area...

I'm not really sure what situation would be best. Better to let the WG rush into building some Grade A office space or let the Council carry out its longer vision?

A life sciences company called ReNeuron is moving its headquarters from Surrey to a location between Cardiff and Bridgend, maybe Pencoed? WAG owns 11% of the company, would it be too much to get it to move to the Cardiff enterprise zone, a swanky new headquarters at Capital sq or Callaghan sq would be an amazing coup for wales....why stick such a prestigous company (the exact type of caompany that Wales is wanting to attract apparently) out on a bloody industrial est when there is such a prestigous place such as Central Cardiff up for grabs? come on WAG, do your job on this one...

... a life science cluster was also mooted for Porth Teigr not so long ago ...

There is a possibility they will also be involved in aninal experimentation and places that do that often prefer locations that are a little out of the way. They tend not to value good public transport links very highly.

Is this comment for real? A life-sciences venture with labs, and making use of chemicals (and as noted, possibly using mice and other animals for stem-cell experiments) would be much better suited to a business or industrial park than a city centre. They probably want largely single or two storey accomodation with easy access for deliveries, room for additional labs if they expand, etc. Such a building would be silly in Callaghan Square, and probably not the best long-term use of land down in Porth Teigr either.

For real? Yes.

I may know little enough about life science but I do know about the various proposals for Porth Teigr over the previous 5-6 yrs.


... Igloo has already gained outline planning consent for a total of 2 million sq ft, to include 1,010 new homes and 1.2 million sq ft of commercial use. As well as retail and leisure space, this will include offices, but Hallett says the developer has specific sectors in mind.

"We're looking to particularly target the biotechnology industry," he says. "One of the first buildings in phase one will be a 50,000 sq ft technium [the Welsh Assembly government's series of business incubators] centre - and we think the area will really support it."


http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/wales/5605-a-wider-social-agenda

I was commenting on the Callaghan Square suggestion (I replied to that one, but that is only seen on the threaded style of viewing the forum). I know what you say about Porth Teigr is true. However, I think its probably a non-starter at Porth Teigr too. Its not the best place for life sciences. The land values for residential and mid-rise offices probably proclude 1-3 storey developments for lifesciences incorporating labs, manufacturing etc. Porth Teigr's initial brief was a bit fluffy, incorporating all the "in" buzzword sectors like "life sciences", "new media", "creative industries" etc. Quite clearly we won't be getting a Technium - this programme has been scrapped, I think, and we're getting a media incubator instead.

I think the developers are hoping for the BBC, S4C, a bunch of other media companies, some standard office buildings, some leisure/restaurant/hotel space and apartments. Perhaps there is a realisation that other out-of-town sites are better for the life sciences? (although locating the funding body in 3 Assembly Square suggests they might still be hoping for some kind of cluster in the vicinity).

Agreed: Igloo's earlier blurb for Roath Basin was (understandably) fluffy as you say

... but I think it's worth bearing in mind that WG is actually lead client here and if the broader WG Technium project had proven viable then there is a strong possibility it would have happened in Roath Basin as some kind of flagship facility - not withstanding all your points about suitability.

In fact, I seem to recall this location being touted as some kind of USP in contrast to other Techniums (Technia?) in more conventional business park settings ... and I most definitely saw models and drawings of the speculative building - which if I recall correctly would have been sited where the new Creative Industries Hub is being built ... and this was set in the development which included something 1400 new homes, businesses and cultural & leisure facilities

Of course, it also worth remembering that life-science is a very broad term and not all operations will entail animal testing, hazardous substances, etc. ... perhaps they had some kind of aspiration to feature only 'clean' bio-technologies in their would-be flagship?

i should have made it clearer sorry, i ment the Office part of the company could be built in the city center not the labs part, they are going to be bringing a large corparate office part of the business to South Wales too, they said they will also have their Headquarters here in Wales too when they relocate but on a seperate site, i think maybe that would suite Callaghan or City sq perfectly...

I noticed that the signs for ING direct have been taken down from Callaghan Square (maybe they've been gone for ages but I only noticed today).

On the intraweb it say that ING direct were bought out by Barclays over a year back. Is their old floor space in Callgahan Square now empty or have Barclays simply not put any new signs up with their livery?

I'm pretty sure ING left Cardiff a couple of years ago. It was only a small scale operation so no great loss

Not so small - over 200 staff

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-19881486


Google gives 2 Callaghan Square as their address but their website gives Reading!

They also relocated their Barclaycard office from Pentwyn there

Barclays have moved part of their ombudsman complaint team from the pentwyn office into Callaghan Sq.

There are still 2 Barclaycard businesses based in the pentwyn office with no plans to relocate

In today's planning applications we have the following for plot E04

14/00490/DCI Discharge of Condition(s) Expected Decision Level: DEL
Received: 28/02/2014 Ward: BUTETOWN
Case Officer: Chris Ellis
Applicant: Mr Fitchett Welsh Government, , ,
Agents: Scott Brownrigg, 77 Endell Street, London, , , WC2H 9DZ
Proposal: DISCHARGE OF CONDITION 10 (FLOOD CONSEQUENCES ASSESSMENT) OF 08/02716/C
At: PLOT E04, CALLAGHAN SQUARE, BUTETOWN

14/00495/DCI Discharge of Condition(s) Expected Decision Level: DEL
Received: 28/02/2014 Ward: BUTETOWN
Case Officer: Chris Ellis
Applicant: Mr Fitchett Welsh Government, , ,
Agents: Scott Brownrigg, 77 Endell Street, London, , , WC2H 9DZ
Proposal: DISCHARGE OF CONDITION 10 (LANDSCAPING INCLUDING CYCLE PARKING PROPOSALS) OF
12/01380/DCI
At: PLOT E04, CALLAGHAN SQUARE, BUTETOWN
14/00501/DCI Discharge of Condition(s) Expected Decision Level: DEL
Received: 28/02/2014 Ward: BUTETOWN
Case Officer: Chris Ellis
Applicant: Mr Fitchett Welsh Government, , ,

Agents: Scott Brownrigg, 77 Endell Street, London, , , WC2H 9DZ
Proposal: DISCHARGE OF CONDITION 33 (HARD LANDSCAPE STRATEGY AND CYCLE PARKING) OF
08/02716/C
At: PLOT E04, CALLAGHAN SQUARE, BUTETOWN
CAERAU
2