Human Traffic’s Cardiff, then and now

A time-capsule for the clubbing culture at the turn of the millennium, Human Traffic (1999) is a hedonistic, excitable cultural artefact of the Cool Cymru offshoot of Cool Britannia and an ode to 1990s laddish excess. It portrays Cardiff as a city of booze, late nights and heavy hangovers.

Justin Kerrigan’s film follows a weekend in the life of a ragtag group of mates, all brought together by clubbing and drugs in the Welsh capital. Jip (John Simm) is bored of his dreary life, waiting for the weekend where he hopes to rectify his failing love life. Koop (Shaun Parkes) is a music obsessive and vinyl dealer whose only downfall is his jealousy over any attention paid to his girlfriend Nina (Nicola Reynolds). Nina herself has just walked out of her dead-end fast food job and aims to enjoy the weekend, especially as her friend Lulu (Lorraine Pilkington) has just become single yet again, while Nina’s brother Lee (Dean Davies) is about to try ecstasy for the first time. And finally, there’s Moff (Danny Dyer), a lost partier who’s conflicted over his privileged background and his father being a senior policeman. Over one weekend, the group try to forget their problems and stresses, putting off the inevitable comedown.

Although Human Traffic is one of definitive Cardiff films, its exterior locations are usually seen in fragments rather than dwelt upon. They are used as a bridge to connect interiors where the partying is unfolding. What we see of outdoor Cardiff feels fleeting yet distinctive, but several of the interior locations have also survived so there’s still plenty to see of Jip and co’s Cardiff.

Here are Human Traffic’s locations as they stand today.

One of the more distinctive locations from the film is only seen for a few seconds. Several characters are walking under a bridge as they come into town. The bridge is that of the railway heading into Cardiff Central while the walkway is one of the many lanes at the beginning of St Mary Street. Today, the road seen in the shot has been pedestriansed and the building on the right replaced with a modern block. The recognisable steps and barrier are still standing, however.

One surprising feature to survive (considering the extensive demolition of just about every other old building in the vicinity) is the white house seen just behind the other side of the bridge. The building is the Other Room, a performing arts theatre attached to an old industrial remnant. They stand virtually alone among the high-rises.

One of the most distinctive interiors used in the film is in a multi-level pub called Gassy’s on Salisbury Road. The pub is still standing and the interiors are certainly recognisable. However, the venue is temporarily closed. Today, like many pubs, it’s closer to a sports bar, but its distinctive multi-storey structure can still be seen through its windows.

The venue that all of the characters are desperate to get in to, The Asylum Club, is an unusual location in that its interiors and exteriors were two different establishments. While the interiors were shot at Club X on Charles Street (since closed), the exteriors were shot outside of the Emporium Club.

Like Club X, Emporium is now closed, though the building where it was on the high street remains, albeit empty.

This shot shows the long queues outside of the club. Today, the area where they’re queuing is an upmarket restaurant.

In another shot outside of the club, we see the buildings opposite, looking up from a steep angle. The building was a branch of Lloyds Bank, but is now a wine bar.

Still on the comedown and unhappy after an argument with his family, Moff walks with hood up past Cardiff’s various political buildings on King Edward VII Avenue.

The shot zooms in on Moff as he walks by a roundabout built around the area’s South African War Memorial on the right and the law courts on the left.

This shot is the easiest to recreate as it’s one of the few in this scene at street level. The camera looks directly up the avenue and its rows of trees as Moff walks past the local police station.

The morning after their night out, the group sit in a pub, which is The Philharmonic on St Mary Street. This shot shows the view out of the window onto what is now part of the Wyndham Arcade.

Shooting in the interior of the pub, Kerrigan captures it when it was an older wood-panelled boozer rather than the huge sports bar it is today.

In the film’s final moments, Jip and Lulu walk arm-in-arm together before embracing in an empty street. The street is again St Mary Street, further down the road from the club.

The street is now entirely pedestrianised, though the exact spot of the final embrace can be deduced thanks to the survival of the large clock outside the building on the left-hand side, as well as the continuity provided by the surviving Greggs bakery.

IMDb
Wales Online

Human Traffic is in selected cinemas from 16 July and on UHD and Blu-ray 21 July.