Capital Tower, Cardiff

Capital Tower rises above Cardiff’s city centre as the tallest office block in Wales for nearly forty years. Its 82-metre concrete frame stands on the site of a 12th-century friary, cleared in 1955 to make way for the tower. Completed in 1970 at a cost of £1.5 million, it was opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan, Sir Cennydd Traherne. The building once housed a jobcentre, bookshop and galleries on its lower floors. In 1998 these were replaced by café-bars and new cladding was added to the car parks. The tower’s 18 000 square metres of floor space now shelter solicitors, insurers and recruitment firms. Tenants include The Law Society, ranstad, AA, DevOpsGroup, Allianz, Yard, Admiral and Dolmans. It lost its Welsh height record in 2009 when Swansea’s Meridian Quay opened. Since then the building has changed hands several times, most recently for £23.4 million in 2018. Visitors notice the tower’s clean 1960s lines and the contrast between its height and the older streets below. The lower floors still open onto café-bars that replaced the original shops. From the pavement the full 82-metre shaft rises without ornament, a plain marker against Cardiff’s skyline.