A Shopping Trip to Carmarthen #1 - King Street & Nott Square
Carmarthen in west Wales is our nearest big shopping town.
It is a bit over an hour away by car and we don't go that often, particularly now we do more and more of our shopping online.
But occasionally we still need to go to the larger chain stores - particularly for clothes. We also visit Carmarthen for hospital checkups from time to time and opticians appointments.
Referring to it as a 'big town' might seem odd to many living in cities as its population is only around 15,000, but it still serves as the regional centre for this part of west Wales.
It is the county town of Carmarthenshire and lays claim to be the oldest town in Wales dating back to at least Roman times.
Carmarthen also claims the fame of electing the first Plaid Cymru MP when Gwynfor Evans won the Carmarthen by-election in July 1966. This Welsh nationalist victory came more than a year before Winnie Ewing won the first seat for the Scottish Nationalist Party.
As well as a full roster of most major chain stores and supermarkets, Carmarthen also still retains a fairly bouyant range of independent shops.
Many of these family run and independent shops are located in the older retail areas around Nott Square, King Street and Lammas Street.
The Old Section - King Street and Nott Square
For this particular visit to Carmarthen I needed to visit the NatWest bank.
The NatWest is one of the so called 'High Street Banks' but ironically it is rapidly closing many banks on many high streets in many towns across Wales (and the rest of the UK), so Carmarthen is now my nearest bank.
Most of my banking is done online but every so often, particularly if one of my older clients pays me by cheque, I have to visit a bank in person.
The NatWest in Carmarthen is in the old section of the town on King Street near Nott Square...
Most fortuitously next door to the NatWest bank is one of my favourite sandwich places - Blasus Delicatessen. Blas is Welsh for taste and blasus is Welsh for delicious.
And the baguettes and sandwiches from Blasus do always taste delicious. The quality of the ingredients is top of the range such as smoked salmon from Black Mountains Smokery...
[Footnote - this photo doesn't do justice to the filled baguette as I had started to pull it apart. In fact this is an old photo from my pre-vegetarian days as I forgot to take a new photo on my recent visit.]
Along King Street there are some great little independent shops like West Wales Tackle & Country Store. You can tell this shop is 'old school' as it doesn't have a website or a Facebook page...
Another fascinating shop on this street is ethnic and new age clothing store Nomads...
You will see in the window reflection that Nomad is opposite Subway, a national sandwich chain, that caters for a different sector of the takeaway market to Blasus which is just along the way.
Continuing along King Street away from Nott Square are an increasing number of empty shops with For Sale or To Let signs jutting out to catch the eye. The small shops along there have found it increasingly difficult to compete with the pincer movement of online commerce and the bigger chain stores in the newer shopping centre of Carmarthen.
Nott Square, next to Carmarthen Castle, provides the focal point for this older retail area of the town and was once the site of a market...
Now it has a number of eating and drinking places around it including another delicatessen. I haven't tried The Old Market Square Delicatessen yet but I did enjoy the American Diner that was on the same site not so long ago...
There is also a great music shop on Nott Square - James Music - where I bought my wife a purple ukulele.
In the next instalment I will continue the shopping journey from Nott Square down Hall Street to Guildhall Square and Dark Gate.
Stay tuned and keep shopping...
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Hey @pennsif! Great post. I enjoyed it a lot. My children are half Welsh. The eldest is named Tesni. I will ask if the kids want to see pics of Wales. Steem on!! I Love and appreciate all you bring to the community.
Thank you - I will likely be doing more posts like this from around Wales.
Any particular areas of Wales you are interested in?
The kid's dad was born in Llanharan (sp might be wrong)
I've not been to Llanharan - but if I am in that area I will take some photos...
Llanharan
Llanharan is a village and community in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. As a community Llanharan takes in the neighbouring settlements of Bryncae, Brynna, Llanilid, Peterston-super-Montem and Ynysmaerdy. Llanharan thrived during the British Industrial Revolution, with several tin and coal mines in the location providing employment to the town's residents. With the decline of heavy industry in the South Wales Coalfield, Llanharan has been in economic decline, though its proximity to the M4 motorway offers its residents easy commutable access to most of South Wales.
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Hiya, @itchyfeetdonica here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #648.
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