St David’s Shopping Centre

When l come back to Cardiff l will get more time to explore more of the shops here, with so many shops l didn’t even get to look at a quarter of them.
It’s a nice building from the outside but feels too prefabricated, it felt like a bog standard shopping centre that has been especially built for its purpose, you could have been in a John Lewis or St Enoch centre, they all look and feel about the same.
Shops
There are so many shops here and l noticed that there where brands and even outlets that we don’t have in Scottish stores, l preferred the St David’s shopping centre as they had more quaint independent stalls and shops.
Food
There was however quite a few places here to have lunch or coffee, there was definitely no shortage there but sadly most of them are chain places, l would rather spend my hard earned cash just around the corner in an independent place or head to Cardiff centre where there are more options.
You can’t go wrong coming here it’s a day out than anything.

I quite like the St. David’s Centre. I always somehow end up coming here every time I make a visit to Cardiff just because of its great location in the centre of the city as well as its variety of shops and restaurants.
~ Interior:
The interior architecture of St. David’s Centre is not actually special or impressive. It’s just a pretty standard shopping centre that is wider than it is tall. Navigating may be a tad bit confusing with all the entrances and exits to different streets, as well as its connection to an entirely different shopping centre (Queens Arcade).
~ Shopping:
To be honest, I don’t shop very often and when I do I mainly just browse Amazon and other online stores. However, with the variety of different shops at St. David’s it does make for great window shopping. There’s plenty of different clothing stores as well as stores for children too (toys, gadgets, etc.) If you’re looking for something in particular, the website has a great store finder you can use to check out to see if St. David’s has what you’re looking for (they most likely will).
~ Dining:
St. David’s Centre boasts a decent variety of different restaurants, from cafes for a cup of tea to plenty of sit-​down restaurants too. There’s nothing special when it comes to the dining options as I do think there’s plenty of better options around Cardiff, but if you’re looking for convenience you can’t go wrong. There’s Nando’s, Red Hot World Buffet, and even 2 Japanese restaurants for a nice lunch.
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Overall, St. David’s Centre has a great variety of options for anyone having a day out in the city centre. You just can’t go wrong!

Soy de Sevilla, por lo que los grandes Centros Comerciales quedan algo lejos de mi alcance. Recuerdo que en Lisboa me impresionó mucho uno de estos centros de compras junto a la zona de la Expo, y cuando fui a vivir a Cardiff quedé maravillado con el St David’s Shopping Centre, una auténtica LOCURA.
Es un punto neurálgico de la ciudad, y es así porque atraviesa casi todo el centro de Cardiff en un sin fin de tiendas. Dentro del mismo puedes encontrar casi todo tipo de tiendas, desde una Apple Store a un Hollister pasando por tiendas de menos caché como la de una conocida tienda deportiva low cost o un cine y sala de teatro. Opciones para todos los bolsillos y cuenta con una amplia zona de restauración.
Cuando uno visita esta zona de Reino Unido en la que llueve tanto, entiende la existencia de este Centro Comercial, un espacio que tardó 3 años en construirse y que cumple con la función de resguardar del frío y la lluvia a todos los Caerdydd. Es uno de los orgullos de la ciudad junto al Castillo y a su famosa bahía (Cardiff Bay) por lo que se convierte en un punto imperdible de tu recorrido tanto turístico como cotidiano si vives por allí.

Great shopping centre this one with plenty of opportunities to spend your hard earned cash.
Food court with a great selection of things to eat ranging from nandos to Prezzo.
Great location as it connects new cardiff with the old and allows you to enjoy your day off no matter what the weather. Castle is walking distance and many options to park. Cinema at the back near the C.I.A so you really could spend the whole day here

The St David’s Shopping Centre was a behemoth before, but with the addition of St David’s 2 it has now become an almost unstoppable monster.
I’m never quite sure how Queen’s Arcade fits into the equation, but St David’s Centre has got pretty much everything you could ever need. What does seem to set this mall apart from others is that it seems to connect the streets on Queen’s Street with those on the Hayes. As such each shop has multiple entrances. This has untold benefits in a city that rains at least 75% of the time.
It is all a bit sprawling, and I do tend to get lost. Especially when I’m trying to find the ladies toilets. They moved from their previous position to somewhere in the heart of the centre. To be fair, the new ones are too small and there is always a queue, so you need to set off before you need to!
Anyway, it is a pretty standard shopping centre with all the high street chains and lots of arms/​arcades.

St David’s is a huge, sprawling shopping centre connecting the whole city centre. I wasn’t living in Cardiff before St David’s appeared so I can’t possibly remark on how it has changed the city (for good or bad) but I must say it is the most successful shopping centre I’ve seen in the middle of a city.
The problem, all too often, with shopping centres is that business is driven away from the town and the shopping centre becomes the city. Shops outside struggle for customers and the look and feel of the place goes downhill. This certainly happened in Southampton, where the high-​street is a wasteland compared to the years before the shopping centre appeared.
Cardiff though, thankfully, is so busy that this problem never exists and the shopping centre takes away the burden from the main town during extremely busy times.
St David’s itself is formulaic, there is nothing astonishing about the place and it offers all the chains you would expect to find. The variety is welcome and the massive amount of shops on offer make Cardiff one of the best shopping destinations in the UK.

To someone that grew up in the city and who knew the old shopping centres to be Queen Street, Capitol and the original St. David’s Shopping Centre this is a whole other ball game. It stretches right through the centre of Cardiff from The Hayes to Cardiff International Arena and branches off in various other directions along the way.
It is home to a couple of new food quarters with various different restaurants (like a Zushi and a Boof). As well as a huge Debenhams, an Apple Store, Clothing shops, and, for some reason, lots and lots of Jewellery shops.
It has electronic maps dotted around the place to plan your route to the shops you’re looking for (the style of shopping I prefer!), or you can simply get lost for an hour having a wander into various jewellery shops filled with things too expensive for words, grabbing some lunch, and leaving with a t-​shirt or three.

This is an attractively designed shopping mall with a wide range of shops. It’s got all the high quality shops you’d expect like John Lewis, Marks and Sparks, and most importantly an Apple shop to play and while away the time. There are also plenty of jewellery shops for every budget with Park House catering to the higher end of the market.

I ve seen a couple of bands at St David’s Centre in the centre of Cardiff.
I remember seeing some great rock bands and the way that the place is built there is always a great view of the bands to be seen
Can veer towards the pricey with regards to alcohol costs BUT apart from that I would thoroughly recommend it!

Its hard to believe this shopping centre has only been there for about a year now as its become so much a part of every shopping trip to the city centre. Its perfect because you don’t even have to get wet to go shopping which is a good feature in Wales. There is plenty of parking, plenty of places to eat and drink, lots of toilets and a good few new shops too.
It still has some shopping units empty and there are new restaurants and shops springing up all the time. I already have too many favourite places to mention in this shopping centre.

Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by the out of this world Westfield in London, and the absolutely enormous Bullring in Birmingham, but I was slightly underwhelmed by the new St Davids 2 centre.
The design is nice, but I think they should have gone much further in making it incredibly modern, as I believe in a few years it will look rather dated. I’ve noticed that there are one or two interactive maps, however the ones I saw in Westfield felt like something out of minority report, whereas I’ve seen similar interactive maps to the ones we have in our shopping centre, in museums for the past ten years.
I’ve also not been over impressed by the shops that have arrived in this centre. There have been a couple of impressive new stores such as Apple, Reiss, Hugo Boss and of course Hollister, but we where is the Urban Outfitters, the American Apparel, or even the shoe store Russell and Bromley? Also some of the new shops like Cult, Blue, and Jane Norman, are dare I say it a little tacky? Finally plenty of shops we already had such as Karen Millen, New Look, and Oasis have simply moved, was this really necessary?
Hopefully as the recession eases we may get some new stores (there are still empty spaces). But for now ST Davids 2 gets a B minus.

When I left Cardiff two years ago, there was an enormous gaping hole in the city centre. The kind of hole that made you a little cautious when you were in the vicinity. Now, there’s a staggeringly modern-​looking shopping centre there instead.
Having grown up in Cardiff, I was admittedly a little precious over the existing city centre design, but having seen the improvements, I have to concede that the new centre is a good thing. The area around the Hayes is no longer looking tired, but instead a new lease of life has been pumped into the area. Old classics, like Spillers Records and the Royal Arcade have been brought back into the centre of a bustling pedestrian area.
St. David’s Shopping Centre, although some shops are still waiting to be filled, seems, to the untrained eye, to blend in very well with the rest of the city. Reminiscent on Birmingham’s Bullring Shopping Arena, the new centre is open and inviting, without being too ultra hip and mind-​bending. It harbours already a good selection of shops and restaurants, and is generally a pleasant space to be in.

The new St. David’s centre in Cardiff is a magnificent study in the architecture of shopping malls. And for that reason alone is well worth a visit. Walking around this vast area I was left wondering if some ghastly mistake in planning has been made. There is no problem on Saturdays as the area is populated with many customers and many shops seem to be busy. A different scene is present during week days. I was there on a Tuesday morning and found that many shops were empty of customers. For example ‘Wallys’ a well known delicatessen that is always busy in Cardiff’s arcades was empty of customers with shop assistants looking bored This was also the case with many other small shops some have gigantic sale notices in order to attract customers Many coffee shops had only one or two customers. There are obviously many empty spaces for shops to rent that have been hidden with gargantuan posters which itself tells a tale.
The only shops that seem well populated with shoppers seem to be Debenhams and John Lewis’s. All this left me wondering if someone had not done their homework accurately in calculating the shopping potential of Cardiff’s population and the number of people who would travel to Cardiff to shop.
Is the new multimillion St. David’s shopping centre a true ‘white elephant’?

Just done all my Christmas shopping under one roof. I was amazed at how great this centre is. Massive car park at a reasonable fee. All the major stores are here and there are still lots of empty spaces so it will get even better with time.

Took a trip in after work last week and loved it! Has a sort of London feel about it — big stores, well organised and real care taken over all the presentation. John Lewis definitely adds something to Cardiff.

Lots of shops, all under one roof– no need to get wet at all! Almost all the shops are main brand names, though there are quite a selection. There is a massive boots in here as well. There is lots of development going on for st davids 2, so there is some construction– wiring all over the place etc.

Saint David’s Centre is great for Cardiff city centre and holds most of the best shops, offering large department stores including Debenhams, Marks and Spencers, Boots and BHS. It is all undercover so its great when the welsh rain comes pouring! It is a very clean and well seated area that hold department resturants that you can go in and have some dinner too. They also hold another Hsamuel, Game and other shops such as Claires and Goldsmiths as well as plenty more, It will also be better when Saint Davids 2 opens with a three storey John Lewis already built but not open, I cannot wait.

Fantastic! This place has everything under one roof connected to everything else through a number of halls. It does seem to be always under construction but this only results in tremendous improvements. The place is always full of people and yet it isn’t impossible to move as it can get in places like the Primark.
You do need a map at times as you can easily get lost in the shops and there is so much to enjoy that hours can be lost just window shopping.
Outside, everything is grouped in this area so no need to go anywhere else really as everything is all right there!

Definitly a place for any shopoholic. All under one roof and that is of great advantage. Your are warm and dry and can shop to your hearts content. The list of shops are endless and something for everyone.

There is no need to go outside of the St David’ss Shopping Centre for shopping in Cardiff. Marks and Spencer, Debenham, Boots, ELC, BHS and all the big names are there. There are plenty of places to stop for coffee and lunch and also numerous toilet facilities. Cardiff is one of the best shopping centres in the country and St Davids Centre is top of the list. Its undergone a bit of a transformation in recent years as it was starting to look and feel a bit tired, but with the St David’s 2 Complex on its way it has regained its buzz! Marks and Spencers has a few exits here so if you’re buying food you can collect by car at the back door which is really handy if you’ve bought more than you intended!

I like St Davids shopping centre as it keeps me nice and dry, that’s probably the main reason. If you envelope St David’s shopping centre as including St David’s 2, then this has been a much needed modern addition to the shopping experience in Cardiff.
Most of the shops that you will find will be high priced designer options, which does seem a bit odd when were are in a depressed financial climate. I’ll let you in on a little gripe of mine, I don’t really like Cardiff as a place to shop. I like to get cheap items that aren’t mainstream and St David’s really doesn’t cater for this, nor does the rest of Cardiff for that matter. I always find myself leaving the city to revamp my wardrobe.
St David’s does however, look a lot better sine the redevelopment and I think it is a lovely place to walk through, but you need a fair bit of money to afford the establishments that it offers you, excluding the cheaper shoppers like myself.