The new headquarters for BBC Wales nears completion of the construction phase. It’s another block of big solid architecture, its blast-proof windows and mainly square lines looking more like a reactor block for a nuclear power station than an environment for creative experiment.
Cardiff Central Square below is awash with workers in muddy site boots and hiviz green PPE kit mingling with the railways workers in orange from the station opposite, established by the Great Western railway in the nineteenth century.
Indoor trades beginning to circulate too as services are installed. One imagines it won’t be long before the major aircon plant units are being lowered in to place by those tower cranes.
But this is Wales, the land of myth and music; nearby, Bute Park, which adjoins Cardiff Castle (today it’s an architectural fantasy built on the location of Roman and medieval military installations) has an equally faux stone circle known as Gorsedd Stone Circle. The central stone looks like it’s arranged to allow the blood to drain from sacrifices... maybe too fanciful an interpretation but it certainly looks like it will be aligned for sunrise at the winter solstice in a couple of week’s time. It was constructed to celebrate the Eisteddfod here of 1978...
Café Jazz is a thriving jazz club in the main shopping street. Tuesday was trad jazz night, two trombones enjoying playing music with their rhythm section and to an appreciative audience. Great to enjoy this music again live and in an intimate venue with eye contact between the players and the appreciative audience.