Chapter 4 Edge(y) territories: the hyperlocal world of Lloyd Robson

“you kairdiff? where ju live?” (Robson, 2001:41) So far in Page and Place we have seen how the themes of memory, place, nostalgia, and change have been central to the entanglements of plot from Cardiff Bay to the central city. We now enter a different but connected territory, from the city centre along Newport Road (see Map 4.1), a line which is plotted by Lloyd Robson in his book Cardiff Cut: “newport road: gotta get home/try upping me speed, first i gotta cross this six laned street (rear red glow/undersill indigo/headlites shine lilac; futuristic vehicles hover eastbound carriageway, leave tracers of transit...) central reservation (shadows of infirmary; whiteclouds buzz smudge of blurred buildings in fronta me...) kerb & pavement.” (Robson, 2001:56)

Travelling down this ‘six laned street’ takes us into Robson Territory, the hyperlocal triangle formed by the meeting of three neighbourhoods: Roath, Adamsdown and Splott. This is the ‘edge territory’ of Cardiff (1995); the edgy territory. Located on the periphery of the city centre but overlooked by many guidebooks, this territory sits on the edge of change and on the edge of chaos (sees Gleick, 1990). Robson’s territory is not the ‘heart’ or ‘soul’ of Cardiff; it is the ‘stain on the map’ (Robson, 2003). 100 Page and Place: Ongoing Compositions of Plot

Figure 4.1 Crossing Newport Road, Cardiff. (Source: Author) “so this is my home, this morose dump this castle ground this moggy swamp this swab of land this marsh growth this tamponing town of urban blood & brown this festering hole this rising damp i keep running from & sloping back & insist on calling my home whether it wants me or not so this is what it’s all about.” (Robson, 2003: 95) In this chapter we see how Lloyd Robson uncovers the role of place in forming his own identity. We will see how geography plays a familial role for Robson in forming his sense of roots and belonging, and how a political loyalty to the local and hyperlocal is mobilised through this process. Through an abridged plotline based on Robson’s Cardiff Cut, the chapter examines the political importance of walking to engage with the city, and how this mode of attachment can generate tensions between notions of belonging at the local and national scale.

“‘yu nose ow splott sounds bad ri? so we’r told any road, cos it’ sounds liek SPOT or SPLATT!’” (Finch, 2003:21)

I meet Lloyd Robson in the Royal Oak, Broadway, half way along Newport Road. Peter Finch describes this location in the following way: “The main highway east, when I get to it, is Newport Road. This link passes on through the site of the Roath Court manor house’s