# St Davids 2



## Ranbay (Oct 22, 2009)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8320695.stm

how did i miss them girls today !!!


also check out this time lapse video 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7843271.stm


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## Sweaty Betty (Oct 22, 2009)

Gutted BOB lol

I love that time lapse vid!!!


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## Ranbay (Oct 22, 2009)

i know 

will hang about tomorrow, the metro says there is a fashion show on at some point  

parking is only £2 for 2 hours also


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## Sweaty Betty (Oct 22, 2009)

B0B2oo9 said:


> i know
> 
> will hang about tomorrow, the metro says there is a fashion show on at some point
> 
> parking is only £2 for 2 hours also



Fashion shows all day today i was told!!!!!


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## Ranbay (Oct 22, 2009)

BRB


Laters.... wooooosh


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## Sweaty Betty (Oct 22, 2009)

LOL

laterz x


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## rhod (Oct 22, 2009)

Very nice build quality - looks and feels classy. Layout is very much like a Catherdral!

However, still quite a few empty units, and an odd mix of shops at the moment. Good to see Dixons/Currys back in Cardiff - their shop is about the same size as their original place in Queen St (Clintons cards there, now I think).

Will be very popular once it is fully occupied.

I hear the new Cardiff East park & ride is pretty swift into the City centre, too.


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## Ranbay (Oct 22, 2009)

I used to work in Dixons when i was where Clintons is now  

the parking is well cheap tho,. about 2-3 hours in the NCP by the model in was about £8 the other week... in St Davids 2 i could park for 5 hours !


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## ddraig (Oct 22, 2009)

or just bloody walk!
fucking car parks in city centres ffs!

oh ai, fashion shows every hour till 6 iirc


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## Ranbay (Oct 22, 2009)

Well to be honest i get free parking in work next to the Station... so i could just park there  

hope your well mate


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## ddraig (Oct 22, 2009)

ai ta,
will go have a look at some point i spose
might try and take my bike in there!


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## LilMissHissyFit (Oct 22, 2009)

I hope the new St Davids will put pressure on the NCP to drop their daylight robbery parking charges. We needed more parking anyway..

Im not going at the mo, I dont have any dosh and I know Ill hit the credit card if I go


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## Col_Buendia (Oct 22, 2009)

Thank fuck it's opened.


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## waterloowelshy (Oct 26, 2009)

I think it all looks great apart from the forgotten about link to the rear where the old libary used to be. Thats definately the tradesmans entrance that they couldnt be bothered to finish.  Anyway, on the whole i was really impressed with the quality and feel of the place.  But, and this is a big BUT, who on earth is going to be buying the goods on sale?  The majority of shops are designer in nature and come at a huge premium.  I just can't comprehend that Cardiff has enough people earning a high enough wage to sustain the amount of high end shops that have opened.  Don’t get me wrong, I think John Lewis is great – but everything in there you can pretty much buy online or elsewhere for cheaper.  Will people do what I do and go there to browse, and find the item you like and then go home and get it off the internet for a fraction of the price? Or are people really that stupid that they will pay a premium for the privilege of having a shopping experience? Whilst I am venting slightly, maybe someone can explain why the childrens department of John Lewis is on the third floor – buggies + small lifts = a long wait to get to the third floor.


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## llantwit (Oct 26, 2009)

waterloowelshy said:


> maybe someone can explain why the childrens department of John Lewis is on the third floor – buggies + small lifts = a long wait to get to the third floor.


That's the same in so many Cardiff shops - sucks ass bigtime. 'Specially when they don't let you take prams on the escalator.
Hmm. Getting old.


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## LilMissHissyFit (Oct 26, 2009)

Its the same in the Bristol one, the kids dept is on the top floor


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## spacemonkey (Oct 26, 2009)

waterloowelshy said:


> I just can't comprehend that Cardiff has enough people earning a high enough wage to sustain the amount of high end shops that have opened.



I keep thinking this. 

Apparently 97% of the average Cardiffian's salary is committed to outgoings. 

Must be all them rich folk coming down from the Valleys.


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## Col_Buendia (Oct 26, 2009)

waterloowelshy said:


> Whilst I am venting slightly, maybe someone can explain why the childrens department of John Lewis is on the third floor – buggies + small lifts = a long wait to get to the third floor.



_/Hazarding a guess/_

If you have kids, you *have* to go to the kids floor. And so will wait. Rather than face the wroth of your sprogs 

Impulse shoppers will not travel up 3 floors to suddenly fall prey to their impulses... they'll do it looking in the window, on the ground floor.

Make any sense? Evil marketeers psychology at work...


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## waterloowelshy (Oct 27, 2009)

spacemonkey said:


> I keep thinking this.
> 
> Apparently 97% of the average Cardiffian's salary is committed to outgoings.
> 
> Must be all them rich folk coming down from the Valleys.



Yeah. Its all very odd. I dont doubt for one second that the shops occupying the new units haven't done their home work and are sure that there is enough of a customer base to sustain themselves in the long term. But, i cant for the life of me work out how they have done their sums?! I would love to see figures for average earnings in the area that they are hoping to attract shoppers from. A case in point would be the jewellery shops - how may people in the catchment area of the shops will be able to walk out and spend upwards of 5 grand on a watch? And how many watches of this price do they need to sell a year to turn over a decent profit? Its just all a bit confusing to me as your average punter. Maybe i am just not aware of the swathes of millionaires that will be attracted to shopping there?!


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## 1927 (Oct 27, 2009)

Take a stroll down Penarth Road and there are Bentley, Maserati and Ferrari showrooms!!! The only thing I've ever bought from Ferrari's was a pasty!


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## nogojones (Oct 27, 2009)

I had a quick look round SD2 and John Lewis last week and was fairly unimpressed, just looked like any shopping centre. Maybe its because I'm not a great shopper with all my needs being met by Tesco, Lidl, the indoor market and Splott market, but I just don't get all the fuss.


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## drachir (Oct 27, 2009)

LilMissHissyFit said:


> I hope the new St Davids will put pressure on the NCP to drop their daylight robbery parking charges. We needed more parking anyway..
> 
> Im not going at the mo, I dont have any dosh and I know Ill hit the credit card if I go



We don't need more parking, we need people to stop being so fucking stubborn and lazy, and walk/take public transport!


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## drachir (Oct 27, 2009)

nogojones said:


> I had a quick look round SD2 and John Lewis last week and was fairly unimpressed, just looked like any shopping centre. Maybe its because I'm not a great shopper with all my needs being met by Tesco, Lidl, the indoor market and Splott market, but I just don't get all the fuss.



This. Just looks like any other shopping centre and it's full of shit shops too.


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## nogojones (Oct 27, 2009)

With you there drachir. They should knock it down and build a car park, to bring the prices of the others down. £12.50 for half a day. Robbing feckers!


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## jannerboyuk (Oct 27, 2009)

waterloowelshy said:


> Yeah. Its all very odd. I dont doubt for one second that the shops occupying the new units haven't done their home work and are sure that there is enough of a customer base to sustain themselves in the long term. But, i cant for the life of me work out how they have done their sums?! I would love to see figures for average earnings in the area that they are hoping to attract shoppers from. A case in point would be the jewellery shops - how may people in the catchment area of the shops will be able to walk out and spend upwards of 5 grand on a watch? And how many watches of this price do they need to sell a year to turn over a decent profit? Its just all a bit confusing to me as your average punter. Maybe i am just not aware of the swathes of millionaires that will be attracted to shopping there?!



Vale of glammy types innit?


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## waterloowelshy (Oct 28, 2009)

jannerboyuk said:


> Vale of glammy types innit?



Yeah probably. but are there really enough of them to sustain the number of shops?  I mean the overheds must be huge in themselves. I personally find it very confusing. Just when we, as a nation, were becoming a bit more sensible about taking on persoanl debt, along comes St Davids 2 which is going to encourage some serious credit card to be racked up. i am just a miserable scrooge i guess.


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## ddraig (Oct 28, 2009)

well the echo was banging on about a £10k watch that was sold on the first day.

not that the hype is believable! heard figures of between 10, 30 and a 100 thousand people for the first day! 
100,000 like an international! yeeeeeeah riiiiiight


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## ddraig (Oct 28, 2009)

now they're claimin a million (or over!) yes a MILLION in 3 days

what a load of shit, plain lies


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## jannerboyuk (Oct 28, 2009)

waterloowelshy said:


> Yeah probably. but are there really enough of them to sustain the number of shops?  I mean the overheds must be huge in themselves. I personally find it very confusing. Just when we, as a nation, were becoming a bit more sensible about taking on persoanl debt, along comes St Davids 2 which is going to encourage some serious credit card to be racked up. i am just a miserable scrooge i guess.



recessions can be quite short though (although apparently this one we are in is the longest in history) and i suspect that planning for both developments and retail empires dont plan around them but just plough on regardless hoping they can survive it. act like it doesnt matter because as soon as that most elusive and mystical of capitalist concepts, confidence goes you're buggered.


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## nogojones (Oct 28, 2009)

ddraig said:


> now they're claimin a million (or over!) yes a MILLION in 3 days
> 
> what a load of shit, plain lies



I don't know, town does seem really busy at the moment. its like xmas is here allready.


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## drachir (Oct 28, 2009)

nogojones said:


> I don't know, town does seem really busy at the moment. its like xmas is here allready.



A MILLION, though? A third of Wales' entire population?


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## llantwit (Oct 29, 2009)

drachir said:


> A MILLION, though? A third of Wales' entire population?



Nice bit of perspective, there, Ddarchir & Ddraig.
That'sa LOT of people. I hadn't thought about it before, but that does sound like rubbish. The equivalent of three international-match crowds in one small part of Cardiff every day for three days. Sounds like complete bullshit. And the Echo just lapped up the press release and slapped it on the front page.


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## drachir (Oct 29, 2009)

llantwit said:


> Nice bit of perspective, there, Ddarchir & Ddraig.
> That'sa LOT of people. I hadn't thought about it before, but that does sound like rubbish. The equivalent of three international-match crowds in one small part of Cardiff every day for three days. Sounds like complete bullshit. And the Echo just lapped up the press release and slapped it on the front page.



Media Wales' journalistic standards seem to be slipping further each day. The front page headline of the 'Echo Extra' (The Post) last week was just: "CENTRE IS SO IMPRESSIVE".
I looked at that for a good minute, trying to take it in.


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## llantwit (Oct 29, 2009)

It's because there's hardly any of the poor buggers left to write the papers. Trinity Mirror the owners keep sacking journalists, or not replacing the ones who leave. It's a terrible shame for Cardiff, I think.


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## Brockway (Oct 29, 2009)

The revamped Victorian bogs opened in the Hayes today. They've put a posh cabinet bit in the middle of the urinals. There's hot water now, too. Very chic.


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## drachir (Nov 4, 2009)

llantwit said:


> Nice bit of perspective, there, Ddarchir & Ddraig.
> That'sa LOT of people. I hadn't thought about it before, but that does sound like rubbish. The equivalent of three international-match crowds in one small part of Cardiff every day for three days. Sounds like complete bullshit. And the Echo just lapped up the press release and slapped it on the front page.



I thought about this some more... even in the very unlikely event that all of those million people returned every day, meaning there were 333,333 unique visitors. That would still mean 1 in 10 people in the *whole of Wales* visited in the first 3 days.

Surely SOMEONE at the Echo must have noticed this?

(And, I know 3/4 people who went in the first 3 days)


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## Riklet (Nov 4, 2009)

It got finished off pretty fast, only took a week from a concrete shell to become an bustling soulless hub of things, people n pricetags, absolutely devoid of anything particularly interesting.

Ah well.  It's a John Lewis for Wales, woopty dooo, wrongs are finally being righted.  Considering it's a big fucking shopping centre full of people, it's not "that" bad, I had a bit of a wander anyway.  There are already loads of crappy bland same-as-everywhere-else shops in Cardiff though, so I can't say the place is in the slightest bit challenging.  The architecture isn't bad, although I prefer the library, that really is a wicked building.  John Lewis I actually think looks quite good, kinda like the "plasma TV" style design.  Moths to the light 

I have actually bought some jeans from H&M there and revelled in how different it was from the other one... like.... the escalators don't work properly.  Pretty amazing man 

ooo i am excited about going for a piss in the new bogs though.  I quite liked the dingy grimey ones with "I FUCK ARSES" everywhere, but maybe the new ones will have those wicked "dip your hands" driers.  Those warm my soul for some pathetic reason!


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## PAD1OH (Nov 7, 2009)

not into the shops at all and I think cities trying to compete on retail is a downward spiral and really unimaginative - all the big ass shopping centres that opened up the last while (bristol, bath, glos etc) are going to struggle.

BUT

the big open space around the hayes/mill lane is really great and I hope it stays a safe place for people to wander/meet-up at night.


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## berniedicters (Nov 9, 2009)

I went on Friday.

Going to Cardiff makes me feel enough of a country mouse as it is (I'm not - I grew up in the Metropopopolis, dammit  ), but going into that there Saint Davids Two place was...weird.

It is a bit like a cathedral, but a cathedral to Mammon (and I'm all for a bit of gratuitous spending now and again!). I don't really like shopping centres, although I must admit that, as they go, it's a pretty impressive one.

I do worry that all that will happen is that even more life will be sucked out of the rest of the city as everybody swallows the self-fulfilling truism that they have to move to St Davids or die...


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## ddraig (Nov 9, 2009)

went yesterday for a looksee
not many shops in there really, very limited food selection as well. how are nandos (3rd one in Cardiff) pizza express (3rd one in Cardiff) and YO sushi (1st one ion Cardiff) 'exciting' and 'innovative' 
and they cliam wagamama and GBK as part of it down to showing you how to get there on touch screen map. nifty enough.

the shops seemed very spaced out, might be a case for it being smaller to begin with.
it's ok as shopping cathedrals go but i was quite underwhelmed after all the hype.

the only bit that 'worked' was how they've fitted it into the space and joined up with other bits. still, a 3rd of the city centre is bollocks and too much to dedicate to one building. the link bridge was shite and dissapointing

overall 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 £270 odd million, what the fuck for, years of disruption and mess in town, a few low paid jobs to service multinational profits, was it worth it? NO


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## LilMissHissyFit (Nov 9, 2009)

Brockway said:


> The revamped Victorian bogs opened in the Hayes today. They've put a posh cabinet bit in the middle of the urinals. There's hot water now, too. Very chic.


My OH hadnt ever been to Cardiff and kinda looked sideways at me when I pointed to the Hayes mens room and said "You needed a loo? Nice loo's these ones"

He spent ages in there and then came out saying it was a pleasure to take a leak in there and he'd been such a long time because he was amazed by all the details, the original fittings, he'd never seen anything quite like it


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## Col_Buendia (Nov 10, 2009)

OK, so the most impressive thing about SD2 are the "new" old bogs outside. I'm yearning to get down for a look now


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## ddraig (Nov 10, 2009)

Col_Buendia said:


> OK, so the most impressive thing about SD2 are the "new" old bogs outside. I'm yearning to get down for a look now



you'll love it! sure i glimpsed a posh kettle in there somewhere


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## Col_Buendia (Nov 11, 2009)

Surprised you didn't break it, then!


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## Col_Buendia (Nov 14, 2009)

Jesus, I went down there yesterday, finally, for the 1st time with the family. What a total disappointment. I genuinely set my anti-capitalist prejudices to one side and just went to look at it and decide whether it was a half decent space or not. But there was no need even to worry over my own prejudices - the building is shite from top to bottom. Architecturally, from the inside, it is possibly the most mundane and boring distribution of space possible. I'd love to know what made Agnesdavies feel it was "pretty impressive"...

When you enter into it, it is basically one long corridor stretching out in front of you. And a fairly narrow corridor at that. It feels like a rat race, with not enough room for the "millions" of punters who are elbowing each other out of their way. There is _no_ social space in the place: no benches for people who want to just rest, no features, no nothing apart from window after window of shops. Relentless. The only place I saw people sitting and doing anything else apart from browsing was at the Costa Coffee terrace.

Granted the open space outside it, down the side of Habitat, is lovely and makes the Hayes feel like a suddenly important space, but that was the only saving grace.

Then we went through to John Lewis... and upon returning into the SD2, what were we met with? The back of the escalators! What an architectural triumph - come in the back way and walk straight into a huge obstacle. It's bonkers how incredibly unimaginative this space is.

I'm not really a huge fan of shopping centres, but until society comes up with a better way of distributing its goods, we might as well have half decent ones. May I make a case for the Victoria Square Centre in Belfast (where else? ) Have a look at the pics here: http://www.victoriasquare.com/gallery.aspx#images/sce/gallery/victoria-square-inside.jpg

It only opened a few years ago, but it has a huge open space on the inside, very striking architecture, and the most gorgeous, superfluous, "dome" on the top - take the lift to the top floor and you have a viewing platform inside a glass bubble from which to enjoy the panoramic view of Belfast. Utterly excessive, but absolutely glorious on a clear day (and there's *nothing* else there, apart from an ice-cream stall ), and something that perhaps suggests that the people who are invited into the shopping centre are not just being treated as cash cows. SD2 looks more like a milking parlour than somewhere 1/3 of the Welsh population should want to go to on a weekly basis


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