Morgan Arcade

There’s a term that is thrown around nowadays that indicates the general distaste the populace is accruing for the standard state of our high streets: Clone Towns. The theory goes that as chain stores move into a city and slowly take over the high street, they force any local, area-​specific shops out of business to make space for them to move in. This causes every high street suffering from this to, essentially be, the same high street, selling the same range of products, limiting the variety of goods on offer.
If you walk down Queen Street, it’s easy to see Cardiff as steadily becoming one of these so called Clone Towns. However, a jaunt through the old arcades of the city will quickly show you how wrong you are. The Morgan Arcade and Royal Arcades in particular are symbols of the unshakeable diversity of Cardiff. Housing family run shops and small, local produce cafes, these two cafes are the home of some of the more unique shops in the city. And on top of this, they are housed in some of the most beautiful buildings around, with classical architecture that lies in sharp contrast to the brightly-​lit blocks of stone that house the chain stores in the city.
If you’re just a visitor to the city, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you skip this arcade.

Ok Unilocalers, it is darn tricky to remember the names of the arcades in Cardiff, but we must try. Morgan arcade is just next to Borders, filled with some delightful little shops such as At Computers and the Camera Centre, so very handy if you are feeling a bit on the technical side and fancy some new equipment. Other shops situated here are little clothes shops and cafes, too many to name, best to go and take a look yourself, however, you’ll never remember what arcade that shop was in, I never do.
This arcade leads from the Hayes area through to St Mary’s street so also quite handy if you need to nip to St Mary’s whilst you’re also having a little browse of these beautiful arcades.
I love these arcades, I never really go to them for anything in particular as I have no idea what corridor that little café I went to last week was. I just go through them to enjoy the architecture and also to take short cuts to St Mary’s. Well worth a look however, there is something about them that adds a quaint feeling to Cardiff, something it very much needs.

The most beautiful arcade in Cardiff and one of the gems of the city. Morgan Arcade reminds of another era, one could be dressed up in top hat and tails and be quite comfortable here.
The recession had quite an impact on Morgan Arcade and a number of empty husks now stand where shops were thriving only months before. Presumably the rates are extremely high in these areas as the space has taken time to fill. When the spaces are filled it is vital that specialist independent shops are the takers, as the charm and nature of the place demand it.
Morgan Arcade is the kind of place you go to browse, to enjoy. It is not just a shopping arcade, it is a signifying badge of the old city of Cardiff and must be preserved at all costs. Modern shopping centres and towns are not an adequate replacement; they have no history, no life and are dominated by chain stores. Morgan Arcade is a slice of heaven amongst all that.

If you want to experience some of Cardiff historical fair you have to visit Morgan’s Arcade. It’s a glimpse into a more architectural elegant era when as much time and energy was invested on the aesthetic look and feel to a building as it practicality.
Cardiff is known as the city of arcades and sadly this could soon so easily refer to games arcades as the shopping arcades. Its’ a pity today’s planners don’t realise why old magnificent architecture attracts so much attention and the protection afforded it by becoming a listed building. Why don’t contemporary planners want to create such fine structures as these that will be looked on with affection in years to come?
I urge you to walk through these magnificent walk ways and marvel at their beauty as their likes will not be around forever or created again.

Morgan Arcade is a Grade II listed building and one of Cardiff’s most beautiful arcades, opened in 1896.
With entrances on St. Mary Street and the pedestrianised Hayes area, parallel to the slightly busier Royal Arcade.
It’s home to the Camera Centre, where you can buy new and second hand kit, and get your camera repaired; Crumbs vegetarian café; Capital Books; and AT Computers for Apple Mac customers. There’s also Isabella’s for Welsh gifts and Murano glass jewellery; Neal’s Yard Remedies for organic natural health and beauty products; Route One for skateboards and inline skates, clothing and accessories; and a couple of ladies’ fashion boutiques such as Rouge and Seren. And now that Spillers Records — the oldest record shop in the world — has moved from its original location on The Hayes into Morgan Arcade, there’s even more reason to venture to the arcade when you’re out shopping.
While you’re there, look out for the original wooden shop fronts, and the Venetian windows up on the first-​floor.

If you ask me, the arcades are some of the best architecture this fair has to offer. When I first moved here, upon hearing about these elusive arcades, I kept thinking people were off to play computer games and air hockey while shovelling coins into one of those claw machines.
Thankfully, I was so wrong. What a wonderful change from the supercentre-​warehouse-​shopping malls in the States!
Each arcade has its own individual charms, but Morgan Arcade is one of the best preserved and most beautiful, in my opinion. Built in 1898, this arcade stretches between The Hayes and St Mary Street and features Venetian windows on the first floor with several stores showcasing original wooden shop fronts.
Morgan Arcade offers a variety of experiences for shoppers with a range of tastes and budgets, from Camera Centre and Hawkes to AT Computers and Route One.

Morgan Arcade, off St Mary Street, has suffered more than most during the recession. It doesn’t seem to get many visitors, even though the surrounding area is usually busy. The parallel Royal Arcade, a little further up the street, is still managing to see a fair throughput of people. This is by virtue of the fact that it is the most convenient link between St Mary Street and The Hayes. The Morgan Arcade also joins the two streets, but meandering off in a dog-​leg and meeting The Hayes at a less convenient point, it’s not as easily accessed as the preferred Royal Arcade.
It doesn’t help that The Morgan Arcade is awash with vacant concessions where it meets The Hayes. It’s difficult to know what has specifically prompted the decline… it’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario… did the concessions close down because there weren’t enough people, or did the people stop coming because the concessions closed down? Sadly, these days, it’s a bit of a redundant question. The reality is that The Morgan Arcade is on a slippery slide, and will take a wholesale revision of its operational merits before it is likely to be turned around.
Like The Royal Arcade, it is enclosed under a beautifully ornate Victorian glass ceiling, but where this works to the advantage of The Royal Arcade, intensifying the vibe, with the noises amplifying as they carry down this lovely long mews, it has the opposite effect in The Morgan Arcade. With very little activity, the few sounds that are made tend to echo harshly off the buildings and ceiling, accentuating the fact that it isn’t much used.
Businesses like Isabella’s are staving off the demise at the St Mary Street end of the arcade. Well positioned sandwich boards at the mouth of the arcade are drawing in a steady stream of visitors as far as her shop at least. But even this isn’t an entirely successful quest. Isabella’s was once an up-​market gift shop selling originally designed accessories and ornaments. These days she sells low cost Welsh souvenirs.
It’s clear that the owners need to intervene and attempt to restore it to a more up-​market shopping arcade before it loses all of its charm.

Once upon a time, Cardiff was a great rolling hillside, ruled over by centaurs and talking badgers, and it was burrowed through with little arcades that sold nothing but sticky buns and barley sugar…
Well, perhaps that’s not entirely true, but the quaintness of Cardiff’s remaining arcades is kind of like that. New shopping centres can take a hike, we like the old ones better. If Brighton has The Lanes, then we have Morgan Arcade. We are, after all, known as the City of Arcades.
Right next to Royal Arcade is a narrow paved corridor, with a snake of sunlight through glass weaving above your head, as you travel through Victorian/​Edwardian/​nice architecture…
This arcade is worth a visit even if you don’t intend to do any shopping. Although, if you do, there are delicatessens, health, jewellers, shoes, fair-​trade, art shops, stationers, sweet shops, chocolate shops, furniture shops and cafes…