St David’s 2 is a prestigious new shopping centre in the centre of Cardiff. It builds on the existing St David’s shopping centre that houses Marks and Spencer, Debenhams and Boots.
With the opening of the new shopping centre in November 2009 it is now possible to shop totally under cover from Cardiff’s main shopping street Queen St. right through to the Cardiff Marriott Hotel on Mill Lane.
Building on Cardiff’s shopping arcade history the centrepiece is a large 2 storey glass-topped arcade that runs from Debenhams through to a massive new John Lewis store.
Currently there are still a number of empty shops, but already there are a huge number of new popular shops such as the Apple store. We just wonder what the affect on the rest of Cardiff is going to be as a number of shops have already moved from other shopping locations such as Queen St and the Capitol Shopping Centre to be in the new centre. Is Cardiff able to sustain this many shops?
The new centre includes a large food and beverage area.
There is also a huge new St David’s 2 car park – it’s relatively easy to get to, has lots of spaces, is very reasonably priced (much cheaper than the NCP car parks elsewhere in town) and has very large spaces so that you don’t have to worry about getting door scratches on your pride and joy. Our only complaint is that the display of how many free spaces there are on each floor doesn’t work very well. It’s also a nightmare to get out of when the nearby Cardiff International Arena (CIA) is emptying.
The centre is also very close to Cardiff Central and Queen’s St railway stations and is also well served by local buses.
The shopping centre is well worth a visit.