 | |
 The Point in 2009 | |
  The Point, Cardiff Location within Cardiff | |
| Location | Cardiff |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 51°27′54″N3°10′05″W / 51.465°N 3.168°W |
| Type | Music venue |
| Opened | 2003 |
| Closed | 2009 |
The Point was a music venue in Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales, located in the deconsecrated Grade II-listed St Stephen's Church.
The Point was situated in the old merchant's quarter of Mount Stuart Square. The focal point of the square was St Stephen's church, that would later be turned into The Point.
The church was designed by architect E. M. Bruce Vaughan and constructed between 1900-2 to replace a temporary iron frame church and opened as the chapel of St. Mary's. [1] In 1912, it became a separate parish under the name of St. Stephen. The church was designed in a Gothic style, the interior dominated by a single nave with six bays of pointed arches and an arch-braced roof. The exterior includes a bell tower at the northeast corner with an octagonal spire. [1]
In May 1975 it became a Grade II listed building, presently listed as "The Point (Formerly St Stephen's Church)". [1] The church was deconsecrated in 1992.
The church was used as a community centre and theatre until 2001, when it was purchased by its current owners. Renovations in 2003 transformed the church to a venue for live music performance [2] and regular club-nights, including Bogiez. The entire building was restored and much of the original architecture was kept, including all the stained glass windows. The Point is now equipped with a fully functional and permanent stage, lighting system, in-house PA, and projection system.
In early 2009 The Point announced its closure, citing reasons such as continued noise complaints from neighbours, which had led to a costly refurbishing and soundproofing bill. [2] Singer Cerys Matthews weighed in her support for the venue, saying her 2006 gig there was "one of the most memorable gigs I’ve ever played. The acoustics are brilliant and it’s a very intimate experience with the audience... Singers come to Wales to play places like The Point so we can’t really afford to lose them." [3]
Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of 362,310 in 2021, and forms a principal area officially known as the City and County of Cardiff. The city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingdom. Located in the south-east of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region, Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan. It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in the region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed capital of Wales. Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth.
Catatonia were an alternative rock band from Wales who gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s. The band formed in 1992 after Mark Roberts met Cerys Matthews and Kirsty Kennedy. The first major lineup featured Dafydd Ieuan of Super Furry Animals on drums, Paul Jones on bass, and Clancy Pegg on keyboards. With this line-up the band recorded two EPs, For Tinkerbell and Hooked.
Cardiff Bay is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of water was converted into a 500-acre (2.0 km2) lake as part of a UK Government redevelopment project, involving the damming of the rivers by the Cardiff Bay Barrage in 1999. The barrage impounds the rivers from the Severn Estuary, providing flood defence and the creation of a permanent non-tidal high water lake with limited access to the sea, serving as a core feature of the redevelopment of the area in the 1990s.
Cerys Matthews is a Welsh singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster. She was a founding member of Welsh rock band Catatonia and a leading figure in the "Cool Cymru" movement of the late 1990s.
Pentyrch is a village and community located on the western outskirts of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The village gives its name to a Cardiff local authority electoral ward, Pentyrch, which covers the village and immediate surrounding area. The Pentyrch community includes the neighbouring village of Creigiau and Gwaelod y Garth. People living in Pentyrch are commonly known as "Penterchyians".
International Velvet is the second album by Welsh band Catatonia. It was the band's breakthrough, reaching number 1 in the UK Albums Chart, spawning two Top 10 singles, "Mulder and Scully" and "Road Rage", three other Top 40 singles, "I Am the Mob", "Game On" and "Strange Glue", and catapulted the band and lead singer Cerys Matthews into the spotlight. Album sales reached 900,000, as it became one of the biggest selling albums of 1998 in the United Kingdom. The album was also nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.
St David's Hall is a performing arts and conference venue in the heart of Cardiff, Wales.
The music of Cardiff has been dominated mainly by rock music since the early 1990s with later trends developing towards more extreme styles of the genre such as heavy metal and metalcore music. It, along with the nearby music scene in Newport, has brought a number of musicians to perform or begin their careers in South Wales.
Roald Dahl Plass is a public space in Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales. It is named after Cardiff-born author Roald Dahl, and is located on the coast along the south of the city centre. The square is home to the Senedd building housing the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, and the Wales Millennium Centre, a performing arts centre. The bowl-like shape of the space has made it a popular amphitheatre for hosting open-air concerts.
Cardiff has many cultural sites varying from the historical Cardiff Castle and out of town Castell Coch to the more modern Wales Millennium Centre and Cardiff Bay. Cardiff was a finalist in the European Capital of Culture 2008.
St Mary the Virgin Church is a deconsecrated and ruined church in the parish of Caerau with Ely, Cardiff, Wales. It was built in the 13th century on a Roman encampment and closed for the last time in 1973.
Ysgol Bro Gwaun is a secondary comprehensive school in the town of Fishguard in north Pembrokeshire. It is a predominantly English-medium school with significant use of Welsh, and has a catchment area covering the towns of Fishguard and Goodwick, the villages of Scleddau, Letterston and Newport and the surrounding areas including the Gwaun valley.
Tramshed is a music and arts venue in Cardiff, Wales, located in a Grade II-listed building that was once the old tram depot for west Cardiff. The newly redeveloped venue opened to the public in October 2015. It has a 1,000 capacity, however this is only reached up to six occasions per annum.
The Old Library is a Grade II* listed building in Cardiff, Wales. It is located in the centre of the city at the northern end of The Hayes. Originally the Cardiff Free Library, it was used as the city's Central Library until it was replaced in 1988. It has been used for other purposes since that time and is currently the home of the Cardiff Story museum and Menter Caerdydd, a community-based Menter Iaith organisation which works to raise the profile of the Welsh language in Cardiff.
Mount Stuart Square is a residential and commercial square in Cardiff, Wales. It is located in the Butetown area of the city. Originally developed in the late 1800s as a residential location for nearby dock workers, it quickly became a centre for upscale residential properties which revolved around the main square. By 1900, commercial activity had taken its place, dominated by the Coal Exchange, which occupied the once open central space. The square contains a high concentration of listed buildings, which represent a range of architectural styles and some of Cardiff's finest examples of late 19th and early 20th century commercial architecture. Mount Stuart Square area was designated a Conservation Area in July 1980.
The Newport music scene, in and around Wales' third city, has been well documented and acclaimed for cultivating bands, singers, and famous music venues. Newport has been traditionally a rock city since the 1970s, but it has evolved over the years to include forms of punk, 1990s alt-rock, and more recently metal and hip-hop.
