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FIND ME IN THE HUB Explore all that Castle Emporium has to offer
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HUB LIFE
The Castle Emporium is a lovely little hub of one-off eclectic businesses based in a magnifi cent converted 1920s cinema. Here we meet a handful of the indie shop owners…
Photos by Gemma Griffi ths Photography
Set over two vibrant fl oors, you could while away hours at The Castle Emporium
Proudly independent, individually brilliant and stronger together: that’s the motto at The Castle Emporium on the legendary Womanby street. The hub of close-knit but varied independent shops nestle inside a beautiful, tall, curved-ceilinged building which was once a 1920s silent movie cinema. Enter and you’ll fi nd edgy, cool and unique shops set in an indoor market-style layout over two vibrant fl oors. Under one roof you’ll fi nd everything from a speciality coff ee hut with an indoor lawn, to an art gallery, a tattoo studio, a barbershop, a skate store, a radical bookshop, a nail studio and a holistic haven.
EMILY MICHAEL Co-owner of The SHO, and manager at The Castle Emporium Tell us about your business… It’s a gallery, shop and studio with lots to inspire and tools to create. We cater for art and design appreciators and individuality seekers, bringing together collections of contemporary design, gifts for the home and stuff we love. We also stock a range of art supplies and off er a custom framing service.
What do you love about Castle Emporium? I love that it houses lots of like-minded businesses together under one roof, which gives the place authentic character and a great atmosphere. It’s one of a kind and set in a beautiful building.
What are the challenges of being an independent? Knowing that you have to fi gure everything out for yourself and not being able to switch off at the end of the day. Running a shop means I have many roles, and it really is a case of learning and improving with every new challenge that comes along. It can be scary but pretty rewarding when you get it right.
And the positives? A sense of ownership and achievement, and the freedom to shape and tweak the business is inspiring and very fun. It’s a great creative outlet, and seeing the business grow and develop makes us very proud.
What’s new? The SHO now has a sister shop next to it: Frankincense & Purr, which we have been working on, selling incense and magical goods.
above: Emily from The SHO Gallery; right: Mike of Cardiff Skateboard Club
A few words about your fellow traders… After running our shop on our own for the first five years, we really appreciate having an in-house community of fellow indies. We all come from a mix of backgrounds but are entrepreneurs at heart that have ended up together, and between us there’s a great deal of varied talent and skill. It’s good to know there’s a friend close by to talk to who understands.
What’s new? Now that the bulk of the makeover in The Castle Emporium has taken place, the new units are filling up nicely with even more additional businesses. Since coming back post lockdown, we are glad and very grateful thatthere seems to be a new found appreciation for local, small and independent business. It almost feels like a conscious shift has takenplace with more and more people seeking out and choosing to shop ethicallyand support places like ours. We hope to see this continue and increase as more workplaces and offices also reopen in central Cardiff. www.thesho.co.uk
MIKE RIDOUT Manager of Cardiff Skateboard Club What do you love about the hub? It’s a great space for small businesses trying to get a foot in the door so to speak. With the crazy price on rent and rates in the city centre, withoutThe Castle Emporium having a physicalspace for ourselves and many others, it would be next to impossible. It’s also amazing to have such a diverse cross section of services, hospitalityand retail business under one roof.
Sofia’s female-run Barber Room is an inclusive space
Who do you cater for? Primarilyskateboarders. The scene in Cardiff and South Wales is pretty strong and we’re all closely connected. We like to think of ourselves as a hangout spot first, shop second. We’ve got a bench to sit on, loads of free magazines and the TV’s always got skate videos playing for anyone who just wants to come and chill. That’s not to say that we don’t actually sell stuff though. Obviously it’s the skaters buying the hardware, but we also do clothing, and most of the brands we sell are exclusive to us in Cardiff.
What’s it like running an indie business? Having to be quite self-reliant is a challenge; for example, there’s no IT department to call if the Wifi is playing up. You have to be the sales person on the shop floor, while also dealing with the marketing, social media, events planning, buying and accounting. But there’s freedom to do what you want; there’s no waiting around for head office to approve something, and you can be way more reactive to new things happening. One of the best bits is you get to put money back into the scene and support it from the ground up.
A few words about your fellow traders… We all try to support each other and spread the word about each other’s businesses. www.cardiffskateboardclub.com
SOFIA NIGRO Owner of The Barber Room What are your thoughts on The Castle Emporium and the area it’s in? I love the quirkiness and vibe of the whole street and emporium. Being a part of a collective of other independent business is great. Womanby Street is so well known for its great music scene. The emporium gives small businesses a chance to be creative and express themselves.
Tell us about your clientele… People on the Cardiff independent business scene like to support each other. We also get a lot of support from the LGBT community as I have an inclusive space where everyone is welcome no matter their gender.
How do you feel being a business owner? Sometimes it’s difficult as I work alone a lot of the time so to manage my day can be high pressure. Ha ving said that, I have total freedom to do things my way.
A few words about your fellow traders… Being one of the longer-standing traders, I have developed a close friendship with the others, and it’s awesome to have new traders coming in with fresh business ideas.
Any events planned as a group? We often organise events such as illustration clubs and small acoustic gigs, but I’d like to try and organise an event within the barbershop to try and get people talking about mental health, especially as male suicide rates are so high. @the_barber_room_cardiff
THE CASTLE EMPORIUM’S HISTORY
A few original features remain in The Castle Emporium which reveal the early days of this building as a cinema, such as its domed ceiling and fantastic acoustics. The Castle Picture Theatre opened on or just after 20 November 1913 and closed in 1921, and it only ever screened silent movies. There was just one screen with 700 seats.
There’s still a plaque commemorating the first public broadcast in Wales on 13 February 1923, from the radio station 5WA, an indirect ancestor of BBC Radio Wales. It broadcast from a tiny studio at the former Castle Picture Theatre. Since its closure, the building has been used for many purposes including a garage in 1930, a camping shop in the 80s, a warehouse, and later on it was briefly CFQ (Cardiff Fashion Quarter), but it’s been housing independent businesses since 2015.
SI MARTIN Founder and director of Heads Above the Waves Tell us about your business… We’re a social enterprise that supports young people struggling with their mental health, particularly working with people who self-harm. We promote positive, healthy and creative ways of dealing with the bad days, and we fund our work through ‘merch with a message’; all the items we sell in our shop (and online) are designed by creatives from around the world to help inspire conversations around mental health. This allows us to create literature, run our website and deliver school workshops where we give young people the chance to try the stuff we’re suggesting, and explore the emotions they’re experiencing.
What do you love about being in Womanby Street? The two of us who run HATW (Hannah Morgan is the other director, who also runs the Team Up! club night) are both firmly rooted in the alternative music scene, so being located on one of the most integral streets in the Cardiff music scene means a lot to us.
What’s it like to be your own boss? Our biggest challenge has been not being able to be in many places at once. HATW is currently just the two of us, so we’ve been lucky enough to be helped by a bunch of amazing volunteers to keep the shop running while we’re off in schools, meetings, conferences, festivals, and all the other stuff we need to do. It also means we can focus on people and have meaningful and supportive conversations rather than just ticking boxes and talking about numbers. But that being said, if anyone wants to fund us externally, we wouldn’t say no! www.hatw.co.uk
ALEX FINLAYSON Owner and barista at FinCo Coffee Tell us about your business… It’s an independent specialty coffee shop which opened in 2018.
What do you think of the area you’re based in? To be able to come to work in the heart of Cardiff on such a distinctive street with all its history is special. It’s also nice meeting various musicians that play at the venues along Womanby Street, both locally and internationally, and the people that are fans.
How do you find running an independent? The biggest challenge for me was making the decision to go for it and leave a job and the obvious security that provided financially. Now I’m a little way down the track, the challenges are costs and thinking of ways to increase the number of visitors. The most important thing to me is when guests give positive feedback about the drinks.
A few words about your fellow traders… It’s quite inspiring to see the young community of independent traders here in The Emporium putting themselves and their businesses out there and doing so well. n @finco_coffee
left: Si at Head Above the waves; below: Alex of FinCo Coffee
Have you seen a cooler team though?
This place is proudly independent
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK The newest arrivals to The Castle Emporium are…
STILL HANDS An inclusive private tattoo studio run by Zak Thomas, who specialises in both handpoke and machine tattoos. @stillhandstattoo
SHELFLIFE A not-for-profi t radical zine and bookshop, specialising in feminist, anti-racist, queer and DIY publications. www.shelfl ifebookshop.com
TROPIGAZ A plant paradise run by Gary Blackburn who either grows the plants himself in his own tropical greenhouse in Cardiff or imports them from the best growers in the Netherlands and Denmark. www.tropigaz.com
The Castle Emporium is back open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm; Womanby street, Cardiff , CF10 1BS; www.thecastleemporium.co.uk
NOW OPEN
