cardiffjournalism.co.uk
December 2020 | Issue 1
Alt.Cardiff If it’s offbeat and in Cardiff then it’s in here
The
£60m
Gamble
A housing estate’s rebirth
Historical website turns 15 | Rock band IdleChord | City’s first doughnut-only shop Chat with Rev Sarah Jones
The News
Historical photograph website shows no sign of losing focus as it reaches its 15th anniversary Cardiff ians was set up as a hobby by Cardiff local Matthew Witty, but it now receives 5,000 monthly visitors who are keen to learn more about their city
A
writes Jack Cousins
website set up by a Cardiff local, which amazing that you can look through history in your houses over a thousand images of old Cardiff, living room. It’s so interesting to see how the city has has reached 15 years old. changed as someone who’s passionate about Cardiff.” The website Cardiffians was initially only set up as Matthew expressed cynicism about the council’s a hobby by Matthew Witty, who was completely new to attitudes towards preserving Cardiff ’s history. There coding when he first came up with the concept in the have been many initiatives to redevelop parts of Cardiff late 1990s. Now, it acts as in recent years, including a focal point for recording Guildford Crescent in the city Cardiff ’s history, amassing centre. Despite 1,000 people over 12,000 visitors in marching against its demolition January 2020 alone. last year, just the frontages of “I’ve always had a the buildings survived. fascination with bits of old “It wasn’t a particulaly Cardiff,” explains Matthew. pretty block but it was “I launched the site in unique,” Matthew said. “It had 2005. It was very basic a great atmosphere and was with only about unusual in a city full of boring 100 pictures.” towers full of students.” Above: Cardiffians’ image of Cardiff Castle dates back to 1940 Over the years, Matthew Matthew believes it is continually updated the because of reasons like this website to ensure locals can continue learning about that it is so important to keep records of Cardiff ’s past. their city. This included a detailed timeline, a page He is proud his website currently holds around 800 about famous Cardiffians and a forum as a means of images that had never been published before and hopes generating a community. to continue updating his website with more exclusive Jack Cutler, a fan of Cardiffians, commented, “It’s photographs of Cardiff ’s fascinating history. AC
© Matthew Witty
How new band on the block IdleChord managed to grow despite two lockdowns One of South Wales’ most exciting music prospects IdleChord have revealed their strategy to ensure fan growth despite Wales’ two lockdowns. The budding four-piece band have kept the dream alive of becoming full-time rockers by convincing small radio stations across the world to play their songs. The band got noticed in the world of radio thanks to persistent efforts from drummer Alex Wellock. Before long, they had songs being played on small radio stations globally including in England, Hong Kong and Australia. This marked a turning point for the band who were struggling to come 2
to terms with the impact two lockdowns had on them not being able to rehearse, let alone play to a live audience. “March was our last gig,” remembers bassist Jake Graham-Dobrowolny. “It’s a shame because we had momentum. We were playing [at The] Andrew Buchan [Bar] in Cardiff quite consistently.” But things are looking on the up again after a frustrating nine months. Bombs, IdleChord’s bestknown song to date, now has 7,000 Spotify plays as they hit new heights. “ We’ve got some awesome tracks to record soon,” lead singer Calum says. “I think things are starting to take a turn in the right direction.” AC
City ’s first doughnut-only shop looking to become a sweet success An independent shop which offers fresh, enormous doughnuts is set to open near Roath Park following increased demand. Cardiff Dough and Co is a business venture from married couple Ashley and Rachael Parfitt that started in the summer during lockdown. But the origins of their passion for doughnuts dates back to their honeymoon. “Over in Australia we came across a food van,” explains Ashley. “ The queue was humungous so we thought [the doughnuts] must be incredible and they were!” Ashley went back to normal life as a welder, but an unexpected break, brought about by the national lockdown,
gave him the chance to experiment with recipes. Eventually, he got it right and started offering collection services online. Sales of their new products started to peak at around 100 doughnuts a day, which was the maximum their home kitchen could manage. They realised it was time to go professional. Ashley explains, “I think freshness is the whole point of a doughnut. If you’re mass producing them they’ve got to be more bready so they’re not as fresh.” Despite nerves, Ashley and Rachael are eager to open Cardiff Dough and Co and unleash their giant doughnuts en masse at Clearwater Parade. AC
Alt.Cardiff | December 2020 | cardiffjournalism.co.uk
Interview
How my gender change made me stronger to overcome hardships in lockdown Jack Cousins speaks to the resillient Rev Sarah Jones about how she utilised technology to ensure Cardiff ’s central church survives the pandemic
W
ander into the heart of Cardiff and your eyes will detect deserted shopping centres, sealed arcades and lifeless pubs and clubs. This sight might make some sceptical to any notion of optimism, but not Sarah Jones, Reverend Canon at St John’s Church in Cardiff city centre. Indeed, she epitomises much-needed strength in the never-ending saga that is 2020. A priest may seem an unlikely source of inspiration given religion, as Sarah has witnessed throughout her 16-year career in the church, is “out of favour”. Weekly church turnouts reflect this mood. “ We’re probably a hundred people a week,” says Sarah. “Now, if you rolled that back 25 years, there was probably two or three times that going.” The problem has been added to by Covid-19 and government restrictions, meaning St John’s was closed from March to the end of Below: Things are looking bleak for St John’s with a 70% loss of funding since March
Above: Sarah considers St John’s to be an ‘oasis in the centre of town’
September, and again in October. With uncertainty facing St John’s, Sarah had no choice but to get creative. Thankfully, she has skills from a previous life in sales to fall back on. “I think every minister is a product of their past,” explains Sarah in her thoughtful, calculated manner. “ When I worked in industry
“I think every minister is a product of their past”
I was on courses which taught me change management, recruiting, listening skills. All of those things are relevant in my job as a priest.” She continues, “Making a gender change helps me understand how other people might struggle with other issues.” These skills, combined with a never-say-die attitude and drive for inclusivity, which has served Sarah throughout her career in the Church of England, culminated in the creation of an interactive live stream. This allows parishioners, some of whom have been going to St John’s for 40 years, a chance to
Alt.Cardiff | December 2020 | cardiffjournalism.co.uk
still experience services online, if not in person. It even includes a phone-in for older churchgoers. “ We created a 15-minute live stream, so it was genuinely live on Facebook and YouTube,” Sarah says proudly. “People can put comments in real time and I see them as the host of the service. We pray for things that people raise during the service.” There are, however, more burdensome problems members of clergy, like Sarah, must face, for which there is no easy answer. It is common practice for ministers to attend the bedside of those grievously ill. These are not normal times, and Sarah has been forced to recognise the possibility parishioners will pass without a minister praying for them by their bedside. “It has been really hard for everybody, and not only people who are dying but people who are quite sick,” she sighs. “It would be great if one of our ministers, myself or somebody else, were to go and see [ill parishioners] and we can’t.” Having been outed by the media in 2005 as transgender, Sarah is no stranger to tussling with the pressures of life. For her, the past year may have just been the next chapter in a tale of hardship. If anyone can steer St John’s through these dark waters, it is Sarah. AC 3
Š Wales Online
The estate has seen little investment since the 1960s
WHAT WAS 4
The low-rise blocks suffer from severe subsidence
WHAT IS Alt.Cardiff | December 2020 | cardiffjournalism.co.uk
Will the council’s multimillion pound attempt to hook up a ‘ left behind’ communit y to the cit y work ?
T
Jack Cousins
he Channel View Estate in south Grangetown is a peculiar place. Vast gaps inexplicably exist between the mixture of council and private homes meaning you’re not protected against the biting winter winds. Unapologetic roads weave one way and the next such that it is easy to get lost. At times it feels like one endless cul-de-sac. Indeed, it gets stranger. Without warning, a 14-storey tower block violates the skyline condemning countless modestly-sized properties to its shadow. It’s the only building on the estate of its kind and, along with housing around 100 older residents, it exists as a landmark, letting you know you’re firmly in the heart of the estate. It is a livelier community than its stark, unwelcoming 1960s architecture may suggest, however. The local park which backs onto the estate, known as The Marl, is frantic at the weekend with sports being played as well as families and friends enjoying a stroll. It’s one of the central hubs of Grangetown; a district which has well documented problems, including homelessness and drug abuse. To counter this, Cardiff Council conjured up a £60 million plan to regenerate the ageing Channel View Estate. Their commitment is to deliver 1,000 new homes by 2022, with the rest of the development to be completed over the coming years. The tired, banal properties the estate’s residents have occupied for nearly 60 years will be pulled down, replaced with a new generation of dwellings. Roof gardens, pedestrian-focused streets and coastal-themed outdoor relaxation spaces are all on the agenda. The Channel View Estate will become unrecognisable, but will it be better for those who live there?
Long-lasting issues
What Channel View Road may come to look like
© Cardiff Council
WHAT’S NEXT
It’s a scheme which the residents will “love”, according to councillor Lynda Thorne. First elected to represent the ward of Grangetown in 1995, Lynda knows the estate perhaps better than any outsider. She holds monthly surgeries in the tower block to gauge the thoughts and feelings of those who live there. “I’ve had issues with the estate since not long after getting elected,” she explains. “Probably about four years into my term of office I visited residents in the low-rise blocks which were suffering from severe damp.” Lynda adds, “Sewage used to come back up through people’s baths because it would get blocked.” As well as the quality of the housing, Lynda has always been critical of the “nonsense” layout of the estate, suggesting the way in which some of the lowrise housing backs onto the park results in anti-social behaviour and dumping. Finally, she has a chance to do something about it.
Feature In 2016, the council started talks with residents over the possibility of completely redeveloping the estate. The plans continually expanded in size resulting in the council purchasing the former gas works land in early 2020. The idea is to fundamentally change the quality of life for residents and the council now has the resources at its disposal.
Resident resistance Lynda says residents just want the council to “get on with it”, but a satisfied majority doesn’t mean everyone is happy with the plans. For instance, Helen Westhead, a local resident and Green Party candidate for the upcoming Senedd election, has reservations about the council’s “half-promises” regarding their commitment to keeping The Marl green. As it stands, 7,500 square metres is set to be lost, but
“Sewage used to come back up through baths because it would get blocked” Lynda argues this is not a pleasant part of the park. She believes building on that land will make the community “safer”, leaving no baron areas where drugs can be dealt. Other residents hold issues with traffic in Grangetown, which led to the implementation of monitors on homes to track road usage levels as the problem gets ever worse. One solution the council will try is an improved bus service. Lynda explained how Cardiff Bus, with a drive to operate profitably, neglects quieter routes like the one through Channel View Road. Solving that issue could mean fewer residents need cars to travel, as well making them feel not as ‘left 6
What the residents can expect A bridge
A waste disposal system
Living streets
There doesn’t currently exist a direct link between The Marl and Hamadryad Park, which is on the other side of the Taff. Walking from one park to the other takes 14 minutes and is thought to add to the sense of isolation residents of the Channel View Estate feel. This is part of a wider plan to create a new cycling and walking route from Grangemoor Park, past the estate, through to the other side of the Taff.
Lynda, and other members from Cardiff Council, went on research trips to Finland and Sweden to understand how other countries deal with waste disposal. They are set on the idea of creating an underground vacuum collection system making the disposal of waste easier for the residents to manage. “We have to modernise Britain,” Lynda says, “We can’t keep doing the same things we’ve always bloody done!”
The council believes living streets can be effective in creating an estate which generates a “pedestrianfocused” atmosphere and, like the bridge, acts as a way of connecting the estate with fellow communities. This will be done through creating more “linear” routes through the estate, rather than the winding, poorly designed roads seen today. This will also allow easier access for buses.
behind’; a phrase which frequently crops up when discussing the Channel View Estate. This isn’t a new phenomenon. Not far east of the estate is Cardiff Bay, the once semi-derelict wasteland that became the epicentre of the renowned £2.4 billion Cardiff Bay regeneration scheme.
Lessons from history Leon Gooberman, an expert in the 20th Century Welsh economy, isn’t convinced the Butetown residents benefitted much from the lucrative project, citing the effects as “illjudged” from the outset of a 1960s housing scheme. “I suspect the feeling of marginalisation never really changed,” says Leon. “ Try walking down Bute Street yourself. There’s a massive big bloody wall dividing Butetown!” He thoughtfully
concludes, “ That’s got to have an impact on the culture.” But things feel different in the seaswept air of the Channel View Estate. It seems as though, for its shortcomings, the council has constructed a regeneration plan which aims to raise the locals up, rather than manufacturing a new demographic of people to live there, as was the case at Cardiff Bay. Walking through the estate may one day be a pleasurable experience: Contemporary, high-density accommodation will flank you on either side of clean, well-designed roads. Adjacent to these structures will be The Marl, lively as it ever was without the defunct dumping ground. A new bridge will permit residents easy access to the bay. Cardiff is a city to which the residents now feel they belong. At least, if it all goes to plan. AC
Below: From one side of the Taff you can see the ageing estate. From the other you can see the five-star St David’s hotel
Alt.Cardiff | December 2020 | cardiffjournalism.co.uk