One of the things I wanted to do when visiting the UK was visit some of the filming sites of Dr who and its spinoff, Torchwood. A primary filming location was Cardiff. There are some paid Dr Who Cardiff tours but unfortunately they only ran on weekends, while we were there on a Friday. So I decided to look through blogs and other tours to collate/create my own!
While in Cardiff we met up with our friends Ryan and Mel, who moved to Wales for work. It was great to see them and they joined us on the tour.
The first stop was Cardiff Castle. This has apparently been used in quite a few episodes but I wasn’t able to find out which specific scenes. Consequently we didn’t focus on Dr Who much and just enjoyed being in a mediaeval castle. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was how many layers of history the castle had. So many owners and uses over different time periods. There was even a section dedicated to WW2 as the tunnels inside the castle walls were used as bunkers during the war!
Next was the St Davids Centre. A few of the plastic mannequin scenes from the very first episode of the revamped Dr Who were filmed there. However it changed quite a bit and none of the shops were in a useful place for a side by side comparison. Although it was useful to stock up on some supplies. Right next door was also the church where “The Runaway Bride” was filmed.
For lunch we went to the craft brewery Tiny Rebel, recommended by Mel. So many different beers and everything we tried was great.
When I was trying to think of memorable locations from Dr Who I thought about the church from Season 1, Father’s Day. The episode primarily takes place in this church as it gets attacked by time eating monsters. I looked it up and lo and behold it was in Cardiff! It was even on the way between Cardiff Castle and Cardiff bay! We got there and unfortunately it was in disrepair and looked like it was going to be knocked down soon. However it was great to see it and a real nostalgic and memorable location for me.
We worked our way down to Cardiff Bay, bumping into Adelaide street along the way!
Cardiff Bay was beautiful and the place to be on a Friday night. We found Ianto’s shrine. Where people place tributes to Ianto, a character who died in the show Torchwood. It’s interesting that there’s a shrine for a fictional character and shows the dedication of Whovians!
Finally we visited the Millenium Center and the water monument. The Torchwood base is located under this monument in the show so it gets a lot of screentime. It was also cooling to stand under it on a hot day. In the same area a scene was filmed from the end of Season 3 where Jack revealed he was the Face of Bo (spoilers?). We tried to recreate the scene – how do you think we went?
After a long day we headed back to Ryan and Mel’s for a tasty homemade pizza dinner (featuring Amanda’s favourite, garlic bread). It was great to see locations I saw so much from my childhood in real life but it was even better to catch up with friends.
Tune in to the Harps 