Fairfield Primary School Penarth - Landmarks and Attractions

Landmarks and Attractions

Cosmeston Lakes Country Park has been a popular attraction, throughout the years since it was developed in 1970. Apart from the lake and a wide range of water fowl there are acres of pleasant walks in woodlands and on the heath.

Cosmeston Medieval Village is open daily and features historical re-enactments during the summer weekends and on bank holidays. The reconstruction of the historical village has been described as the best of its kind in Britain.

Turner House Art Gallery is located at the top end of Plymouth Road and is the current exhibition space for Ffotogallery the national photography development agency for Wales. It features regular exhibitions of photography, video and new media art. The gallery was opened in 1888 by local resident, James Pyke Thompson, originally to house his personal art collection. There is also a small art gallery located at the Washington Buildings, a tastefully converted 1930s art deco cinema. Although the back of the Washington Cinema which used to be a Hyper-value store is now a Tesco Express, with a possibility that Subway and Domino's Pizza may join them.

Alexandra Gardens is the town's main Victorian Park, opened in 1902, with colourful flowerbeds, leafy glades, an ornamental fishpond, ornate bandstand and the town's Cenotaph memorial to the fallen of two world wars. The park leads from the town down to the seafront, almost connecting up with the Windsor Gardens park that runs above and parallel to the esplanade.

The Paget Rooms hosts dances, occasional pop concerts and plays by local dramatic societies. The 1970s superstar Tom Jones played one of his final UK concerts at the Paget Rooms before moving to America. Welsh band Man once recorded a live album at the Paget Rooms, using the famous Decca mobile studio that also recorded The Rolling Stones and today pristine copies of the limited edition vinyl pressing, named (incorrectly) Live at the Padget Rooms, Penarth, now change hands for substantial sums of money.

The beach front promenade remains a popular draw for visitors and tourists with its Victorian Italian Garden that displays many unusual palm trees and exotic plants. The surviving element of the original Victorian pier is a summer staging point for the various pleasure steamers, that ply their trade from time to time in the Bristol Channel and the pier is used as a popular winter sea fishing venue. There is also the historic Penarth Yacht Club, built in 1883, stood next to the new RNLI lifeboat station and its associated shop, together with a wide range of popular cafes and restaurants available on the seafront. The seafront remains uncommercialised with none of the amusement arcades that can be found at other traditional Victorian holiday resort frontages. The town's swimming pool and baths built in the late 19th century was closed in the 1980s and, after a short reincarnation as a bar and bistro, has recently been tastefully converted into luxury flats while retaining its Victorian exterior.

The clifftop walks to the bays of Lavernock, St Mary's Well and Swanbridge with their beaches and the historic hut where Marconi first transmitted radio messages over open sea remain popular with residents and visitors alike. The old trackbed of the railway that once connected Penarth to Cadoxton and Barry Island and was closed by the Beeching Axe is now a rural greenway and cycle track from the Archer Road rail bridge as far as the Fort Road bridge in Lavernock. The remaining main section of the Lavernock Fort gun battery has been listed as an Ancient Monument. The Lavernock Point Nature Reserve is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales.

The town has mounted the two week long Penarth Holiday Festival each July since 1966 that features special events and celebrations all over the town. These have included pop concerts, yacht regattas and power boat races, donkey derbies, parades, fairs and fetes in the parks, tea dances, stage shows, art exhibitions and spectacular firework displays. In 1970 the festival was closed with an air display by the Red Arrows above the clifftops and sea front.