Market activity

This past few days the scaffolding and enclosure that has contained the work being done to restore O'Neill's pub after the fire has come down on schedule. There's still equipment and a skip to be moved, and probably lots of internal work to be completed, but it looks as if the street will now be clear for the completion of the re-paving. The area in front of the market entrance is currently being done, and cleverly managed to enable people to use the entrance safely while work goes on either side of the walkway. Once this is done, the pathway across the churchyard will be next to be re-paved. I wonder if excavation will bring any surprises? Probably not, since it was first dug out and laid in 1892. The brass grave markers will go when re-laying takes place, but all the original numbers, displayed on the original map of the path will be inscribed in granite, and the brass markers will eventually become an exhibit in Cardiff's new history museum.

It will be interesting to see how quickly old Cardiffians pick up on this change, and what sort of comment it generates. Certainly, inscribed granite will be more durable than a fresh set of brass numbers plumbed into the stone, offering a target for a certain kind of local handyman who can buy tools with which to prise them out of the paving from a market stall, as they've bought tools to prise open collection boxes and liberate bicycles chained up. There's really no control over what people do with tools they can source locally - like the smash and grab guys in Castle Arcade last year, who bough a couple of sledge hammers for the job at B&Q (conveniently leaving on the labels, and assisting in their detection by B&Q CCTV. I don't think market CCTV is that all embracing.

It was gratifying to learn today that last Saturday's Mission Fayre raised £1,300 for USPG's work, despite the worries expressed that business was slow. That's more than last year, and more than I expected, since we're supposed to be in recession. It hasn't stopped people wanting to be generous and willing to work hard for a good cause, however.

A new angle on progress

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On my way around the city centre redevelopment site today, in search of new photographic perspectives, I found myself climbing the stairs of the sole remaining multi-storey car park that hasn't been demolished, in Mary-Ann Street. I don't know why I didn't ever think of doing it before, as I soon discovered that it offers a grandstand view of areas I have been photographing regularly since the beginning of the year. If offers a view of the whole site westwards, close to the remains of the 'New' library, and the huge multi-screen cinema that has pagoda-like pretensions with upturned roof edges as if it was beamed in from another continent.

Apart from finding fresh views I ran into the Safety Officer for Cuddys, the demolition contractor, who was up on the roof with his video camera, logging the scene for the firm. He told me with satisfaction that over the past six months there had been only one non-serious accident on this vast, dangerous looking site. He also remarked with pride that the demolition of the car park sited within three metres of the cinema had taken place with only two cracked windows on the neighbouring building as collateral damage. Now that's something I reckon is worthy of pride, looking at the hundreds of photos I've taken of Cuddy's monster machines munching away at steel and concrete. It's a tribute to the skill of their drivers, who truly deserve their 'significant' wages.

I had wondered why the last wall and end section of the Library was still standing when the rest had been taken down without interruption. It turns out that the final stretch overlooks the ramp which serves as a service entrance to the St David's One shopping centre, in use 24 hours a day. The external wall is clad with heavy stone panelling which cannot be allowed to fall and demolish the ramp. So, very careful preparation has to be made to guarantee that when the walls come down they are sure to fall in the opposite direction. Nothing can be left to chance when the impact on business in the main shopping centre is so critical.

One last thing. That tree growing next to the outer east wall of the Tredegar Street car part, which survived through to the levelling of the entire site, offering first its blossom and now its bright green leaves to the delight of all passers by, is doomed. It sits inside the line of walls soon the be built and will have to be removed. It could have been trashed ages ago I guess, but something in the hearts of all those demolition site workers has left it in place as long as possible. Hopefully when it goes it will be lifted out carefully and given a home somewhere else, even if it's in the garden of one of those involved in site clearance.

There is also the last remaining flowering cherry tree on the Hayes, still tucked in at the base of the last remaining stump of Oxford House. Will it stay? Unlikely. But I did learn from my conversation that its roots are contained within a structure that make its removal and its transplantation possible. Let's hope someone responsible at the other side of the site knows this. The rest of the trees on the Hayes were grubbed out unceremoniously and dumped - something which scandalised me when I noticed this in an early photographic foray.

Conversations and entrances

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On really horrid days, it’s good to have one like today to remember.

I walked down to church for the Eucharist – for a while at least it wasn’t raining and the sun came out. The lady who stands in the City Hall underpass quietly witnessing to her faith,(see 14th Feb posting) looked up as I passed and for the first time caught my eye and gave me a beautiful radiant smile, which (I hope) I returned when I said : “God bless you.” as I passed her. Contact at last.

After the noon Eucharist I had a conversation with a visiting couple from Toronto – she was a Quebecoise and he an Italian Canadian of fifty years standing. They were trying to work out what sort of church St John’s is, as well as fascinated by its history and relationship to the city and country. Coming from another bi-lingual city, they were impressed by the visible evidence of two languages in the way the city presents itself to the world, and wanted to know what degree of political autonomy Wales has. It was one of those moments of feeling pride in our particular social experiment, and feeling that our little corner of world Anglicanism has made a strong contribution to healthy pluralism - living together with our differences – despite apparent problems elsewhere in the Communion.

Oxford House South section demolition is now under way, and I was able to grab some quite spectacular photos of the demolition machine in action. Being half term there were more people causally watching than usual. I must find out what the site workers call these machines. I don’t even know their proper technical name. When this one toppled sections of a brick and breeze block end wall, or smashed a window and grabbed out its entire frame and mounting in one blow, there was an audible gasp of amazement from passers by. Live entertainment for half-term week!

I had a chat with Gerald (it said on his hat) one of the site foremen, who in between sentences was redirecting traffic at the junction of Bridge Street and the Hayes. Although the NCP multi-storey car parks had finally been closed for demolition three days ago, the banner notice announcing they were still open was not taken down until two days ago, and out of habit, motorists were driving in search of parking right in front the building site, before having to turn around and exit frustrated and denied. Gerald told me that he had worked on a similar development in the centre of Plymouth for four years, and how he’d got to know the local photographers, including a septuagenarian who’d researched old film archives of building, rebuilding and redevelopment of his city over his lifetime, as a way of documenting social change. That’s a bit more ambitious than my photo-blog, but I fully understand the kind of enthusiasm that drives such a project.

I left Gerald sorting the chaos and went to visit Nia Wynn-Jones in her workshop behind the ‘temporary’ city library over the railway from Bute Terrace. (Check out Nia's website) She’s making the ornate wrought iron gates that will grace the entrance of the south churchyard, once the new east-west path has been completed. She's copied the fleur-de-lys motif from the existing railings to use as decoration - hundreds of them ! She's also replicated the corner ironwork pillars from the churchyard, and will be re-cycling the pieces of fencing taken out to create a gap for the path, to use in the gates. It's going to be an eye catching design, that will fascinate visitors and enhance civic pride. I'm determined to get Nia to do some work on the church tower porch gate which could do with something kinder than renovation. It only fills two thirds of the gothic arch it encloses. Extending and embellishing it to fill the complete space, in a way that echoes the design of the gates would give the entrance a lift.

The churchyard site manager, Danny McGee was consulting with Nia when I arrived. He and I had spoken on the 'phone, but so far I'd not succeeded in finding him there, so it was good to have a face to face with these two people whose labours are going to transform one small ancient corner of the city centre into an open air sanctuary from all the hustle and bustle. I got some great pictures of the ironwork too.

Last but not least, I had an email from someone I know well, who has been thinking through life the universe and everything for some months, and has shared some of the journey with me, now asking to be prepared for Confirmation. It’s one of those things that crowns any day, no matter how bad or good it may have been.

Complexity and uncertainty

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It's now a week since I bought a replacement for my horribly noisy desktop computer. Thankfully, the new one is quite quiet, and having a larger high resolution screen is proving beneficial. It was the sort of bargain that's commonplace at the moment with shops clearing their shelves of kit in order to display (on much the same hardware) the new Windows Vista operating system. I've already decided that I don't want to use Vista. If I wanted something with equal or better capabilities, I'd save up and buy a Mac, or else just continue using Linux, as I often do now, for the pleasure of using something different that works very well and looks good.
It's taken most of my spare time during the week to get Windows XP under control, rid the system of software I don't want to use, install software I do want to use, and transfer my entire filing system intact, so that I can carry on with my workspace as I have evolved it over the past five years. In principle there is a Windows program that enables you to automatically do all these things for you. However it presupposes that you use your computer in complete subjection to Microsoft's not always helpful way of arranging things, and use all their software. Also, for reasons of its own it stops working quite arbitarily if it thinks you don't have the right to transfer files. As one commentator said recently: "It behaves like it's like that Microsoft owns your computer, not you." There's no guarantee it will transfer everything you want, or leave you with the complete working system you need. So it's been a week to practice patience and determination, to show Microsoft who owns my computer, and painstakingly transfer everything I need, while keeping up with daily routine.
It's been quite a useful reminder actually of just how complex a process change can be, never as straightforward as the vision proposes, and even when planned out very carefully, there are always elements of the unforeseen that creep in.
The hoardings are up around the south churchyard, and the excavators at work creating a new churchyard path. This stage should have been reached about eighteen months ago, but has been postponed time and time again as the developers kept encountering other obstacles impeding the progress of the whole city centre redevelopment project. Long planning enquiries and appeals, question marks about design traffic, parking, how to keep the city running whilst half of it is a building site. So many twists and turns unforeseen when the presumed irresistible grand retail vision for Cardiff was first laid out over four years ago.
Even now the bulldozers are busy turning shops, offices and library into rubble to take away. As interest and excitement slowly begins to grow, doubts are still being expressed about the long term impact of the development on Cardiff's independent retailers and small shops - whether or not economic recession will undermine the capacity of this project to deliver a return on the investment, and generate the promised extra 2,000 jobs in the city centre.
The complexity of this project is vastly greater than one man's PC operating system, and it's truly impressive the way in which so many creative minds and high powered resources are set to work, rising to the challenge. Trouble is, inevitably it turns out to be even more complex to handle than anyone ever anticipates. The 2008 original completion deadline slipped to 2009, possibly 2010. Despite all our scientific and technological resources, fingers will still be crossed until it's finished. By which time I'll be retired and have either converted to using a Mac, or thrown my lot in entirely with the Linux and free software community.