Invisible Cities is an award-winning social enterprise that trains people affected by homelessness to become walking tour guides of their own city.
These tours provide a unique insight into the city in focus, with themes chosen by the guides themselves, interweaving the history of the city with their own experiences and interests.
Invisible Cities began in 2016 and has trained people to become tour guides across Edinburgh, Glasgow, York and Manchester.
A vital area of The Wallich’s work lies in the development of long-term, sustainable solutions out of homelessness.
This begins with building confidence and skills through engaging clients in the design, delivery, evaluation, and improvement of the services they receive.
This initial participation leads onto more formal progression activities aimed at helping people achieve a sustainable level of independence through education, training, and employment.
Guides can either be paid or work on a voluntary basis, depending on which options best suits their current circumstances.
The income from tours can be re-invested into the organisation and used to support tour guides training in skills-based areas such as budgeting and money management.
Guides will receive high-quality training – usually through a dedicated block of workshop training, followed by anywhere from four months to a year developing their own tour and practicing it.
This element of the project will be delivered by creative and community partners including National Museum Cardiff and Glamorgan Archives, drawing on their skills and expertise in recording, interpreting and engaging a diversity of different audiences in history and heritage.
Visit the sites where protests have animated the city and paved the way for change. John takes you to the iconic meeting places where global and local causes have been fought for.
At the heart of this is the relationship between those tensions – Cardiff as a capital city of a small working-class nation striving to find a place on the world stage.
John takes you through different forms of protest, visiting the monuments to changemakers who have shaped Wales both past and present, from Dic Penderyn to Betty Campbell.
John skilfully weaves in his craft of poetry, sharing his own work alongside pivotal pieces. This tour is both personal and political, giving you an insight into Cardiff as a creative catalyst.
Starting at the Betty Campbell monument, this tour will lead you into the creative heart of Womanby street, piecing together how the Romans, Vikings, the Butes and Pirates all made their mark on the city.
You’ll hear first hand experiences of protest from the Occupy movement outside Cardiff Castle, to saving local music venues.
The tour will end at the feet of Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS and advocate for social housing.
This monument has been the starting point for protest in Cardiff for decades and will leave you questioning what you would change if you could.
City of Imagination is the ultimate love story between people and place.
Long before Larysa arrived in Cardiff, the city had unknowingly captured her imagination in books, films, television, music, and poetry. As you walk between the iconic landmarks of Cardiff Bay, stories of adventure, sci-fi, and romance come to life.
Bravery, friendship, and hope frame this walking tour, with plenty of humour and some mischievous gargoyles added in for luck.
Starting at Wales Millenium Centre and looping back around via Roath Lock Television Studios, you will visit sites dedicated to the memories of musician Ivor Novello, author Roald Dahl, and adventurer Robert Falcon Scott.
You will also discover the places of fiction that have become familiar through Torchwood and Doctor Who. As your imagination is ignited, you will be introduced to the past and possible future of Wales through the amazing architecture of Cardiff Bay.
The Pierhead building reminds us that this part of the city was once the maritime epicentre of industrialisation whilst the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament, symbolises the movement towards future thinking and sustainability.
Cities shape people, and people shape cities.
Successive generations have contested the present and future shapes of Cardiff. In this walk we explore the simultaneous historical layers of the city, the changing kaleidoscope of space, place, and power.
We view today’s cityscape with fresh eyes, exploring prominent public buildings and memorial statues plus some lesser-known urban fragments to discover some of the key historical episodes and social actors in the formation of the global Coal Metropolis.
Our waymarks include traces of the Medieval walled town, fragments of industrial archaeology and maritime Cardiff, and the gothic splendour of the Church of St John the Baptist.
The climax of the tour is the architectural triumph of Cathays Park, which was the first planned Civic Centre in the United Kingdom and an inspiration for the American City Beautiful movement.
We will end the tour at the allegorical sculpture of Minerva featuring the labour of the coal miner as an emblem of the South Wales Coalfield and the source of Cardiff’s wealth as a port and city.
Tours bookings are available via the Invisible Cities website.
Bulk bookings or general enquiries can be sent to InvisibleCardiff@thewallich.net
If you can help promote our tours, support pathways for our service users or are interested in working in partnership, please contact julia.thomas@thewallich.net
“We are over the moon to start working with The Wallich in Wales. They are all about creating opportunities for people so having Invisible Cities tours as part of what they offer fits really well.
“Cardiff is also a great location for our tours, with thousands of tourists, events and a rich history to share.”
