Why dragon can ‘reflect our past and our ambitions for the future’
Calls have been made to place an imposing sculpture of a giant dragon on top of one of the iconic new buildings in Cardiff’s Central Square. Here former urban planner and PR boss Hywel Thomas, who put forward the proposals, outlines his vision for the pro
NATION building – that’s not a phrase we hear too often in Wales. It can be interpreted in many different ways and be manipulated to suit multiple political agendas.
For me, it’s about confidence and raising our expectations in every aspect of Welsh life.
My agenda is quite a straightforward one.
I want Wales to be the best that it can be, and for the people of Wales to be proud of their identity and outward looking to the world.
It’s hard to create a semblance of a confident nation when you’re poor or when your environment tells a different story – when your neglected high streets struggle to hide their emotional scars. Poverty creates division. We can be very tribal in Wales at times and quarrel amongst ourselves over who should get what and where it should go.
Sometimes, in trying to keep everyone happy or more accurately not upset anyone, we end up with nothing.
I remember feeling a great sadness before the Wales Millennium Centre was built hearing so many people saying, “Why do we need an opera house when we’ve already got the Millennium Stadium”.
It saddened me because I thought, “Is that the height of our expectations in Wales? Is that all we think we’re worth?”
Predictably a discussion followed on where is should go – anywhere else but Cardiff.
For people to feel engaged in such debates as identity or nation building, they need to be inspired, not simply by words or charismatic leaders but by the bricks and mortar of their built environment and well paid jobs.
I’m a walker. I walk everywhere to the point that I exhaust myself sometimes.
I was 12 when I first made the onemile journey from my home in the Cardiff suburb of Roath to the city centre on a Saturday afternoon, a journey that I have repeated every weekend for almost four decades.
Although the city has changed a lot since I was a child, progress at times has felt painfully slow.
The recession hit hard, like most places, in 2008.
When you love your city as I do, you notice every imperfection and find every missed opportunity or mothballed development painful.
But then something happened to give me hope for the future.
BBC Wales decided to move its headquarters to Cardiff ’s Central Square along with 1,200 jobs.
Cardiff University’s School of Journalism followed suit and was joined by solicitors Hugh James.
Investor confidence in the capital was high with Legal & General investing £400m in the Central Square development.
The Westminster Government also decided that this would also be the location for one of their 12 super regional tax offices.
The result of one very smart decision and a vision by those involved to make it happen is likely to transform the city in a way that I could never have imagined.
In raising the stature of Cardiff we are also raising the profile of Wales and, hopefully, the confidence of the nation.
For a country of just three million people Wales has often punched above its weight.
We were once the biggest exporter of coal and steel in the world.
The steel forged at Merthyr’s Dowlais Ironworks provided the railway tracks that spanned America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
It’s important to remember our past but to use it to spur us forward up or else we remain stuck.
A new skyscraper will soon dominate the city’s skyline in the form of the HMRC office at Central Square.
It’s the obvious location for a piece of art on the scale of the Angel of North, to welcome people to Wales.
The Welsh dragon – an ancient symbol of our nation – will be a bold and fitting tribute to the strength and resilience of our people.
Cardiff was built on the coal and steel of the south Wales valleys.
Our fates, our pasts and futures are inextricably linked.
Every day more than 80,000 people commute to the capital city from the surrounding areas.
It’s important to me that the relationship between Cardiff and the south Wales Valleys is cemented in stone or, better still, iron.
Every good dragon worth its fire needs a name.
That name should reflect our past and our ambitions for the future.
With this in mind, I think that, Dowlais y Ddraig would a be fitting name for our dragon – forged with the steely resolve of the people of Wales.
Phonetically in Welsh, Dowlais or Daw Lais, means the voice is coming or, with a little poetic licence, “give voice to the dragon”.
Like all pieces of great art, there’s often a twist.
Think of the Mona Lisa whose eyes seem to follow you around the room.
I think our dragon, sitting high above the skies facing Cardiff’s Central Station should cast a slight backward glance over its shoulder into the Principality Stadium.
I imagine the teams taking to the field and looking up at this ancient symbol of Wales looming over them.
The very thought of it gives me goosebumps and will probably send a shiver down the spines of visiting teams.
I hope that our dragon will be an inspiration to the nation and symbolise a new-found confidence.