St David's (), previously known as St David's Shopping Centre, is one of the principal

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

s in the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. It is in

The Hayes The Hayes () is a commercial area in the southern city centre of the Welsh capital, Cardiff. Centred on the road of that name leading south towards the east end of the city centre, the area is mostly pedestrianised and is the location of the H ...

area of the southern city centre. Following the extension of St David's 2 in 2009, St David's is the third busiest shopping centre in the United Kingdom. The construction of the extension cost a total of £675m and brought Cardiff within the top five shopping destinations in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The centre consists of the original first phase - St David's Centre - adjoining

St David's Hall St David's Hall () is a performing arts and conference venue in the heart of Cardiff, Wales. St David's Hall is the National Concert Hall and Conference Centre of Wales. It hosts the annual Welsh Proms and the biennial BBC Cardiff Singer of t ...

and the second phase, given the development name of St David's 2. The second phase of the shopping centre opened on 22 October 2009, when the first 58 of its 88 stores opened for business.

History

In 2008–9, the annual footfall of the centre was 27 million, and it was expected to rise to 33 million in 2009–10. 20 million people visited the centre during the first six months after the opening of St David's 2. St David's was crowned the international shopping centre of the year in 2010 by Global Retail Leisure International, beating contenders in Portugal and Singapore. St David's and other centres were patrolled in 2009 by three

paramedic A paramedic is a healthcare professional trained in the medical model, whose main role has historically been to respond to emergency calls for medical help outside of a hospital. Paramedics work as part of the emergency medical services (EMS), ...

s on bicycles between every Friday and Sunday in order to respond rapidly to medical emergencies.

First phase

St David's Shopping Centre was open to the public in January 1981, although it did not officially open until 24 March 1982. The centre has four entrances located on Queen Street, Cathedral Walk, Working Street and Hills Street. The entrance on Hills Street connects to the northern entrance of the second phase of the shopping centre, open at street level and via an enclosed bridge on the first floor. It is also joined internally with Queens Arcade. There are three thoroughfares within the centre: Town Wall, Cathedral Walk and St David's Way. The centre attracted an average footfall of 39,000,000 per annum and has a core catchment of 2.4 million people. The 12 million tourists that visit the city annually help generate over £7.5 billion in retail spending. There are seventy-five individual shops and stores in the first centre that cater for a broad demographic. The centre was anchored by

Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Most boots mainly cover the foot and the ankle, while some also cover some part of the lower calf. Some boots extend up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearl ...

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

and

Primark Primark Limited (; trading as Penneys in Ireland) is an Irish multinational fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with outlets across Europe and in the United States. The original ''Penneys'' brand is not used outside of Irel ...

in 2007.

was built on top of the shopping centre.

Second phase (St David's 2)

St David's, and much of the southern end of Cardiff city centre's shopping area, was re-developed as part of the St David's 2 development. The second phase was a £675 million extension of the centre, in which a large part of Cardiff's south city centre was demolished. Demolished buildings included Oxford Arcade, St David's Market, St David's Link including the

Cardiff Central Library Cardiff Central Library (now Cardiff Central Library Hub) () is the main library in the Cardiff city centre, city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It offers a public library service and is open six days a week. Four buildings have been named as such, ...

, the NCP Tredegar Street

multi-storey car park A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...

, the Wales National Ice Rink, the NCP Bridge Street multi-storey car park, and

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1948 in Washington, D.C.; its first store was built in April 1948, with i ...

who relocated to

Cardiff International Sports Village Cardiff International Sports Village () is located in Cardiff Bay in the city of Cardiff, Wales. It is one of the largest regeneration projects currently in the UK and is a public-private funded project. The site currently has a 50-metre (1 ...

. The second phase of St. David's was known as ''St David's 2'' during the construction phase, but both phases were simply named "St David's" when the second phase was completed. The second phase consists of three main buildings in total: the Central Library building, which is built on part of the

Marriott Hotel Marriott Hotels & Resorts is Marriott International's brand of full-service hotels and resorts based in Bethesda, Maryland. As of June 30, 2020, there were 582 hotels and resorts with 205,053 rooms operating under the brand, in addition to 160 h ...

car park, the

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American civil rights activist and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

department store, which is built on the former Wales National Ice Rink, and the main shopping area, which is built on the former Oxford Arcade, St David's Link and western side of Bridge Street. It also includes

apartments An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement (Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that ...

, called Hayes Apartments, above the main shopping centre. The second phase is made up of different sections, they are: * St David's Walk, leading to the extension of

and the Grand Arcade. * St David's Way, The original part of St David's. * Grand Arcade, connecting St David's Walk in the original centre to John Lewis. The Grand Arcade was split over two floors. The Upper Grand Arcade had other shops and stores. The Lower Grand Arcade * Eastside is the restaurant and café quarter of the second phase of the centre. It is split over two levels. * Working Street, part of the façade of

, was converted into store fronts to better blend with the facade of the Working Street entrance of St David's Centre. * The first Welsh branch of the

department store chain opened in 2009 and is the largest John Lewis store in the UK outside London. The John Lewis department store opened four weeks before the St David's Grand Arcade shopping area was opened. St David's 2 has added an extra of retail space to the city centre, in addition to the John Lewis department store, nine other large stores, and a further 90 smaller shops in a two-tiered shopping mall have been built. It has also created 3,000 car parking spaces, new bars and restaurants plus the new Central Library and 4,500 permanent jobs. The development has included two new arcades: Grand Arcade and Hayes Arcade to reflect Cardiff's historical Victorian arcades. The project, that was hoped to make Cardiff one of the top five shopping destinations in the United Kingdom,

topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed at the top of a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is ofte ...

on 27 January 2009. Many of the retailers in the second phase of the centre were new to Cardiff, and to Wales, in particular

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

, Hollister, and

Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...

Cardiff Central Library

The former Central Library was located a few hundred yards north of the present building and was knocked down to make way for the St David's 2 development. The new Central Library opened on 14 March 2009.

Alliance

Alliance is a -high sculpture in

. The sculpture consists of a large stainless steel and enamelled metal arrow column and a hoop, which glows in the dark, and falls and rises with the tide. It was paid for by the St David's shopping centre as part of a £1.5m public art scheme in the city centre, was installed in the space between the new shopping centre and

.WalesOnline , Arrow art aimed at the heart of Cardiff’s history and culture
/ref>

Hayes Apartments

Hayes Apartments is part of St David's regeneration development by St David's Partnership; it is a joint venture between Land Securities and Capital Shopping Centres. It consists of 304 apartments above the shopping centre in seven blocks known as phases. The apartments are a mixture of studio flats and 1 and 2 bedroom apartments. The architects for the residential Hayes Apartments were

Glenn Howells Architects Glenn Paul Howells (born 1961) is a British architect and a director and founder of Howells. Early life Howells was born in Stourbridge, England and educated in Plymouth. Practice His practice, Howells (formerly Glenn Howells Architects), ...

. Hayes Apartments has private courtyard gardens designed by Hyland Edgar Driver and planted above the rooftop of the shopping centre. In summer 2010, the first residents moved into Hayes Apartments, which was launched by an outdoor garden party on the development's private courtyard gardens. Sales in the first two phases were announced as completed at the end of 2010 and sales began in the third phase, block 4, which is the largest block. The development was due for completion in 2012.

Barrack Lane Retail Quarter

Barrack Lane Retail Quarter is a residential and retail development. It forms part of St David’s and has nine shop units and 27 apartments. It is owned and managed by Linc-Cymru Housing Association, which is an organisation that specialises in affordable housing in Wales.

Logos and identity

Johnson Banks Design Ltd were commissioned by

Capital Shopping Centres Intu Properties plc was a British real estate investment trust (REIT), largely focused on shopping centre management and development. Originally named Transatlantic Insurance Holdings plc and later Liberty International plc, it changed its name ...

and

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc, trading as Landsec, is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom i ...

to provide a new logo and identity for the new St David's shopping centre. The designers said

Rail access

* *

Demolished buildings and the construction of St. David's 2

> File:The former Oxford Arcade, Cardiff.jpg, Oxford Arcade, The Hayes File:St David's Market, Cardiff, Wales.jpg , St David's Market File:Cardiff Central Library 2006.jpg, Central Library
(St David's Link) File:Demolition of Cardiff Central Library for St David's 2.jpg, Demolition of the Central Library and Bridge St car park File:St David's 2, Cardiff--001.jpg, Construction of the John Lewis store File:St Davids 2 during construction.jpg, Construction along

in April 2008 File:St Davids 2 Construction April 2009.JPG, Construction along The Hayes in April 2009

References

External links

St David’s official siteBarrack Lane official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint David's, Cardiff Economy of Cardiff Shopping in Cardiff Shopping malls established in 1991 Redevelopment projects in Cardiff Shopping arcades in Cardiff Castle, Cardiff