Attraction1 to 2 hours

The Victorian & Edwardian Arcades

About

Cardiff calls itself the City of Arcades with more justification than most city slogans: six glass-roofed Victorian and Edwardian shopping arcades thread between the main streets, starting with the Royal Arcade of 1858. Between them, Royal, Morgan, Castle, High Street, Duke Street and Wyndham arcades hold the city's best independents: Spillers Records (founded 1894 and claiming the title of the world's oldest record shop), Wally's Delicatessen (feeding Cardiff since 1947, with an Austrian-style Kaffeehaus upstairs), vintage shops, barbers, cafes and a cheese shop or two. They are free, dry in the rain, and the single best argument that Cardiff's centre has kept its character while the chains moved in around it.

Photos

Highlights

✓Royal Arcade (1858), the oldest of the six
✓Spillers Records, founded 1894
✓Wally's Delicatessen and its Kaffeehaus
✓Castle Arcade's three-storey galleried interior

Tips

→The arcades connect the Hayes, St Mary Street and Castle Street, so use them as weatherproof shortcuts and you will see the whole set without trying.
→Most arcade shops keep ordinary retail hours and are closed or short-houred on Sundays.