Cardiff Walking Tour with Invisible Cities Tours

Cities shape people, and people shape cities. Successive generations have contested the present and future shapes of the city of Cardiff. In this walk we view today’s cityscape with fresh eyes discovering the stories behind key historical episodes and social actors in the making of the Coal Metropolis of Cardiff. Against the backdrop of the bustling cityscape at large and today’s rapidly changing skyline, our waymarks include traces of the Medieval town wall, Cannon Wharf, the Custom House and the Glamorgan Canal, the statue of The Second Marquess of Bute: The Creator of Modern Cardiff, the commercial hub of St Mary street, the landscape of civic reform around the Free Library with it's sentinel statue John Batchelor: The Friend of Freedom, the Gothic splendour of St John the Baptist Church Tower and it’s interior featuring a William Morris Stained Glass Window and a reredos sculpture by Cardiff School of Art and Science trained William Goscombe John, the statue of The Third Marquess of Bute and his restoration of Cardiff Castle, the statue of Aneurin Bevan MP: The Founder of the National Health Service, the architectural splendour of Cardiff Civic Centre at Cathays Pak that includes the Glamorgan County Hall featuring the allegorical sculptures by A H Hodge of Minerva and Neptune and featuring the labour of the coal miner as an emblem of the source of Cardiff’s wealth as a port and city. As you walk with me, tracing a 1.5 km northerly line through the city space of 1.5 hours duration and covering some 150 years of history, you will see for yourself why Cardiff was dubbed the “Chicago of Wales”.