Arrival at the Bay Part 1

[linda_joyce]

The bus dropped me off just by the water feature that those of you who watch Torchwood will know well as the lift down to the base is just by it. I couldn't photograph it though because the area is a sea of marquess put up for a Food, wine and craft festival that is starting on the 11th of this month. So we start with this.
Chitty, Chitty, Bang Bang the musical is on at the Millennium Centre


You can just see her under the enormous frontage of the centre.


Here we have the last remnant of Cardiff Docks as this was before becoming gentryfied. It's the 19th Century Coal Exchange. The first Million Pound cheque in Britain, and possibly the world, was written here when Coal exporting from Wales was at its height.


And just to it's right as you are looking into the picture we have this. In my child hood it was just called the horses but I think the correct British Term is The Gallopers.

For the first time ever, in my experience, the Coal Exchange was open and had some vivid Victorian tiles in it's foyer.

Comments

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous tiles.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

They were even better in real life

[javahound.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing a bit of Welsh history. The 'gallopers' are known as a merry-go-round here. :)

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

My pleasure, I love showing off my homeland.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Merry-go-rounds here are the rides for the real babies here, things like this http://www.babydollplayground.com/MerryGoRound.jpg
or this http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/acad/casl/csah/images/car_merry_go_round.jpg. But I have heard the gallopers called that too.

[javahound.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links :)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Ooh, carousel horses. I love them. I see that carousel has only gallopers-- the other major pose was 'standers' (which didn't go up and down- I think they were meant for people to stand next to and hold little children on.)

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

It had two benches with carved standing horses on each end so that little ones could go on them and a parent could sit beside them but the single horses were all gallopers.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

IIRC very nearly all carousels/merry go rounds/roundabouts/ gallopers were custom-made to suit the buyer, so the variety is endless.

Now I want to make a carousel. :^)

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

And I want to ride on it.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of making one of cake, with the animals being sugar cookies, with peppermint sticks for poles. :^)

But I am not going to do it. I am tooo lazy. And too sleepy today.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Well if you ever do I want a slice.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

You know I love to share. :^)

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

I love your pics--more, more.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Patience my child, you will have to wait until tomorrow when I take my phobia about deep water and beat it into submission to go on a boat trip around the Bay

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

This excursion is really very nice and interesting - tells me more than "dry" textbook facts...hopefully there will be more.Ah - the "gallopers" as you say - it is also part of my childhood!

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

It is so much more interesting to hear about somewhere from someone who knows it, even slightly than to read about it in a book whose authors read books about the place instead of visiting. That's why I like hearing about your home and the town you work in. They live in your words but die in a guide book.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Ah, you have said it beautifully!

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Ooh I like the car.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I don't think there is a motor in her or I would have had a go at driving her away myself.

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

I saw Chitty-chitty Bang-bang (the car) a fair few years ago in Rochdale market (of all places). It's a wonderful thing, isn't it ?

I'm an absolute sucker for roundabouts of all kinds. Each year, usually early Novemeber, and in December, a full-size roundabout sets up at the top of one of the pedestrian precints and town, and I always have a ride.
I've got some lovely childrens books about roundabouts, including one about a galloper called Gigi, and a pair called 'The White Galloper' and 'Jumping Cats'.

The National Fairground Archive is based in Sheffield Univeristy, just a few minutes walk from where I live, and the curactor is an acquaintance of mine from University days.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

First I love your icon. I used to like riding the horses when I was a kid but I haven't tried them for years and at the price they were charging for a ride I wasn't tempted this time. £3.50 for an adult!!! The las time I rode one it was 6 pence for a child and a shilling for an adult, god that makes me feel old!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

We used to have merry-go-rounds, but nothing as magnificent as that one. Those tiles are gorgeous!

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

Aren't they just, I was quite disappointed when I got inside to find it was very plain, some nice pillars but not the blaze of coloured tiles I was expecting.