ARCADES PROJECT

It’s hard to imagine that this 1920s arcade was once the Welsh hub for the worldwide film industry, with every reel of film doing the rounds of cinemas making its way through this arcade at the height of the movie era.

There’s a nice 1921 logo at both ends of the arcade, though the name is no longer up in neon lights as it apparently once was. And there is no glass ceiling as such, though the mottled windows in the ceiling of part of the arcade do give it some natural light, and keep its definition of an ‘arcade’ today.

A big hotel is now the main tenant, with other shops keeping going there a barber, a locksmith and a tanning studio. The coffee shop looks to have closed down, though that might be temporary (May 2024). And I couldn’t help wondering if the ATM cashpoints in the wall are where the self-service post office was, when that was such a new phenomenon in the 1960s.

There’s interesting artwork painted on long stretches of the walls of this arcade, though no information on who the man with a cigarette in his hand actually is: was he someone key in the film industry once upon a time?

And, as with other arcades in Cardiff, there are examples of the arcade poems on the walls of Dominions, too. But they could do so much more to link this place back to its earlier days when Warner Bros, Columbia, Universal and the rest of the film studios were based here.

My pick of the arcade’s past

Among early tenants a watch shop, a ladies’ outfitters, and a cafe. One of the shops advertised as being in ‘Cardiff’s delightful cul de sac’. By end of 1925 another ladies’ clothes shop, specialising in ‘evening gowns, furs and millinery.’ Fellows Wireless shop opened in 1926. A silk underwear shop in 1927 on the 1^st floor.

In May 1927 Warner Bros film producers opened an office in Dominions Arcade, under the management of Isidore Jacobs. In 1933 Fox Films moved into an office in the arcade, too, as did Columbia, with Walter Dovey in charge (though later a Cardiff City footballer called Granville managed the Columbia office). Other British film distributors also had offices in the arcade in the 1930s, so this was a real movie industry hub in Wales, and the arcade was where most film reels were stored pending and after distribution, at least until 1950, when the local fire officer said the arcade was not a safe place to store large quantities of highly inflammable celluloid.

A ‘self-service Post Office’ was set up in Dominions Arcade in 1961, only the second in the UK after the one in the Houses of Parliament in London. People could put coins into a machine to buy stamps, postal orders and stationery to ‘cut out tiresome queues suffered in many post offices.’

Sources for the above stories all www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk and specifically: 1) The Bioscope, 12 May 1927; 2) Kinematograph Weekly, 23 February 1950; 3) Halifax Evening Courier, 4 January 1961 – National World Publishing Ltd.

What memories do you have of visits in years gone by?

Have you got any good stories to add on the past of this arcade?

What’s your favourite shop in the arcade today?

Have you seen this arcade in any films or books? And who is the man in the mural?

Is there a website for this arcade?

No. There is a dedicated page on the City of Arcades website, but Dominions is Cardiff’s often forgotten arcade in spite of its celebrity past ( and top level restaurant and hotel today ).