Although the lockdown is slowly easing in Wales, Cardiff remains strangely quiet with many of its once-bustling streets remaining empty.
Here’s some photos from an (essential) trip earlier this week.
Paddington station was pretty much deserted apart from staff members and a handful of passengers.
Most of the shops and coffee outlets were closed, and there was hardly anyone on the train up to Cardiff.
The Welsh capital continues to present a different landscape every time I return with new buildings going up all the time.
This is a view outside Cardiff Central station. I knew it as Cardiff General when I was a kid.
That hoopy thing in the city centre.
Called ‘Alliance,’ the 25-metre-high (82 ft) sculpture was created by Paris installation artist Jean-Bernard Métais, from a concept by art critic Hervé-Armand Béchy, and consists of a large, partly enamelled, stainless steel arrow, and a hoop that glows in the dark.
Alliance’s arrow and hoop seem to balance in the air. The hoop, filled with a phosphorescent liquid, is partially submerged below the pavement, with a mechanism programmed to make it rise and fall with the Bristol Channel tides.
Métais describes the piece as “an organic clock” which “connects the place with the people”. [—]
Back of the St David’s Centre.
Rails to the north!
The lines to the left take Valley passengers to Radyr, Pontypridd, Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil, while the lines going straight ahead link to Coryton, Caerphilly and Rhymney.
At Cardiff Queen Street.
Rhiwbina artwork.
Cardiff City Hall.
The near silence of St Mary Street at night.
Cardiff Castle.
Social distancing circles on the castle lawn.
Deserted Queen Street.
Love this artwork above Boots on Queen Street.
The Echo Centenary clock.
Clouds and glass.
With Rhiwbina’s Summer Festival cancelled, a ‘scarecrow walk‘ has been set up.
Waiting for the train at Rhiwbina station on the Coryton branch. See how it looked in the 1960s here.
Social distancing seating.
Cardiff Queen Street station, once a grand Victorian station with glass overall roof.
Reflections and spikes.
View from the platform.
Cardiff Central station.
Waiting for the train on a socially distanced bench.
More about Cardiff
See more Cardiff photos here or join in with the Cardiff chat here.
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Cardiff photos: Christmas lights, street scenes, Rhiwbina station and scarf sellers, Nov 2019
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In photos: the deserted streets of New York during the coronavirus lockdown, April 2020
In photos: Cardiff Queen Street railway station in the 1960s
