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Market Street, LLANELLI, SA15 1YD

One of Llanelli's few remaining old shops situated in Market Street. Siop y Werin roughly translates as 'Folk Shop'.

This building is the home of Tinopolis, one of the largest independent media production companies in the UK outside London. The building started out life as a Tesco supermarket, complete with its own multi-storey car park, built in the mid 1970s, however with the trend for out of town shopping centres, Tesco built a larger and more modern store on the outskirts of Llanelli in the late 1990s abandoning its town centre building. After lying empty for a couple of years, the building was taken over and extensively refurbished by Tinopolis, converting it into a state of the art studio/office complex. The four large shuttered windows (and one to the side) at the front of the building are windows into a television studio where two daily live welsh language television programmes are recorded and shown on S4C (Wedi 3 and Wedi 7). These are the first studios in the UK to be entirely equipped for producing HDTV programmes throughout the production chain (including tapeless editing) and although the final output on S4C is currently in standard definition, it means that the programme archive is already available in the high definition format. Tinopolis, the company's name is an affectionate nod to Llanelli's nickname in the 19th century when the town was the world's capital of tin plate manufacture.

A view of Llanelli town centre taken from Tinopolis Centre's roof. Some of the buildings in the foreground look a little derelict and are scheduled for demolition as part of the town's modernisation. The shop in the foreground, originally titled Femme, should probably now be renamed Fermé...

Llanelli's town centre, taken a couple of nights after the Christmas lights were turned on. The picture was taken from the same location as Image

In the early morning of Monday 14th May, the Charcoal Grill became mostly charcoal. Investigations are under way, but it's suspected that the fryer had been left on overnight. The fire appears to have revealed the remains of an awning partially displaying the property's previous name. This shop, based on local memory was Frost Jones, a prestigious seller of fine women's clothing in the mid 20th century. Also, another sign of how the shopping centre of Llanelli has moved from one area to another. The buildings have been deemed unstable and will probably be demolished.

A pedestrianised main shopping street in the town centre.

One of Llanelli's more historic buildings, the Stepney Hotel, on the corner of Park Street is scheduled for imminent demolition. Originally built in 1761, the current building’s structure is believed to date from the 1850s or earlier. Unfortunately, it seems the planning department didn’t realise this building’s significance to the town’s history (or chose to ignore it) and along with other more recent nearby buildings is about to be wiped away in the name of progress. In its last days, the building is no longer a hotel, with many of the upper levels no longer in use. It now houses the Sol Bar (now also closed pending demolition).

On this day, a row of shops in what's left of Park Street Image that were once a thriving part of Llanelli town centre is finally demolished to make way for modernity's sake. Decay started long ago but was hastened when bypass was built blocking off through access.

The Ffwrnes theatre and Park Street in a burst of sharp evening sunlight after heavy rain.

The Llanelli Community Heritage plaque is on the wall on this http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3397861 building. It records that the Royalty Theatre stood on this site from 1892. It was later known as Haggars and the Hippodrome Cinema. Demolished in 1977.