Llanelli Town Centre Re-opening Day

Today's re-opening of the town centre saw a good crowd gathered around Central Square – and with precisely the sort of weather we wanted.

Tin Dragon kept a watch on events and had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

By 07:30, most of the market stalls were set up, with everything from fresh veg and jewellery to lawnmowers and inflatable Sponge Bobs neatly displayed along Stepney Street and Vaughan Street.

At 08:00, the final traces of construction work – those ugly plastic construction fences – were cleared away and the new brick paving was given a last-minute sweep.

From 10:00 onwards, four competing teams from local primary schools opened up shop, selling various hand-made items in attempt to earn the most profit and win the Carmarthenshire Young Traders contest 2013. Yet these young entrepreneurs looked beyond that money-centric measure of success and took pride in their enterprises, some promising to donate all their profits to charities.

Each team received a £100 budget from local sponsors, including: the St. Elli shopping centre; Plush Lettings property management; The Sweetie Palace; Rook's Trophies; and Hungry Horse.

"I'm one of these people who eats 5 fruits a day. Llanelli has 5 major projects, and this is one that has really transformed Llanelli." - Cllr Terry Davies

Just after 10:20, Councillor Terry Davies addressed the crowd for the inauguration of the newly renovated town centre. Having drawn a parallel between this completed regeneration project and a fruit, the Councillor thanked the audience and lifted the EU flag cover to unveil an information board dedicated to the new ERDF-funded installations in Central Square.

 Following this, Llangennech Primary School choir took centre stage under the glaring sun.

The town centre remained full of shoppers through the afternoon, Llanelli Outdoor Market firmly in place for the remainder of the week. Meanwhile, upstairs in the library, artwork by local schoolchildren was on display for the Llanelly House art contest initiative. Given that the competition award ceremony was held yesterday, today's exhibition was a quiet affair (at least around the time I dropped in). In another part of the library, representatives from County Council Leisure department were at hand to discuss geocaching, an activity that combines technology with outdoor exploration. Tin Dragon sees great potential for this in the area and will soon be involved in the Summer Geocache Challenge - more on that coming soon!

As is customary in the town, a lack of publicity for local events was evident today. Free parking in Council-run carparks, a measure intended to draw more visitors to the opening ceremony, was announced at the last minute, and an absence of exhibtion/geocaching signs outside the library meant that very few people were able to enjoy the full array of today's events.

On the plus side, with the unveiling of the information board in Central Square, we now know a bit more about that big glass structure – previously described as a 'glass umbrella' – and the mysterious 'bench'.

The Glass Canopy was designed by Laura Thomas, a woven textile artist and a specialist in textile artworks for public spaces. Laura is also a part-time Textiles tutor at Coleg Sir Gar, and carried out the Glass Canopy project in cooperation with project manager, Emma Price and contractor Alun Griffiths. Construction resources were provided by Innovative Glass Products, based in Clydach, and Staffordshire manufacturer, Broxap , contributed to the engineering of the canopy (find a detailed write-up of Glass Canopy here).

The individual glass panes are patterned, with inspiration derived from quilting textiles, carbon fibre, copper mesh and stainless steel – all relevant to the town's industrial past. The contrast between quilting and metalworks also highlights the integral role of women during industrial times, reflecting the division of labour between the tinplate works and domestic textile production. Check out Laura's early photos of the installation here.

Next on the information board, we have official confirmation of the name of the new seating arrangement/bench thing: the Bench. I bet no-one expected that.

Harking back once more to the tinplate era, London-based architect company, Dallas Pierce Quintero, replicated the folding process used in thin-gauge tinplate production to design a unique type of bench. A deep teal colour finish was intended to resemble that of raw steel, and words associated with tinplate production, in both English and Welsh, are inscribed on parts of the metal.


On close inspection, Tin Dragon noticed that some the colour finish is already starting to peal. Let's hope that a scuffed appearance is the worst we have to look forward to (and not someone successfully engaging with public art by jamming a few body parts in it).

More updates –as ever– coming soon!

Tin Dragon.