It's surprisingly busy around the Cwmbran Centre on a weekday morning.
Walking under the imposing yellow dome towards the main shopping area, you're struck by the number of people milling around and wandering in and out of shops and cafes.
For over 50 years Cwmbran Centre - one of the biggest shopping centres in Wales with more than 170 shops and 3,000 free parking spaces - has doubled up as both the shopping hub and the town centre of Cwmbran, which was designated as a new town in 1949 to provide new employment opportunities following World War Two.
Walking around the centre, there's a difference compared to what you normally see in towns and cities. Empty shop fronts are few and far between, there are little signs of dereliction and there is a constant flow of customers passing through.
Last week the shopping centre was acquired by LCP Group as part of a £138 million deal which also includes the Galleries shopping centre in Washington, Sunderland. The group said it was "rare to find a shopping centre like Cwmbran" and that it was a "destination to be proud of".
But with UK high streets suffering from rising empty shop fronts, dwindling footfall and once-crucial anchor retailers departing for good, what, if anything, sets Cwmbran apart?
Read more: You can find more Cwmbran stories here.
Mary Legge used to work in Newport market but now regularly shops in Cwmbran Centre.
"We really like coming here to shop. It's lovely here - it's clean, you don't have anyone asking you for money or anything like that," she said.
"You've got everything under one roof here, it's all under cover and there is loads of free parking.
"I worked in Newport market and getting rid of it is the worst thing they ever did. They're putting food and drink in there, but you won't get older people in there. They are not going to come for that kind of thing.
"In Newport you've got the market at one end and the bus station at the other. They cut a lot of the services to high street and that makes it difficult."
Yvonne van Biljon is shopping with her mother Marie McKee. They live in Cwmbran and shop there several times a week.
"The free parking is a big draw," Yvonne said. "Everywhere you go in Cardiff or Newport you have to pay for parking.
"We like to spend several hours having a walk around, getting a coffee. If we did that in Cardiff you'd be lucky to only pay five or six pounds. You'd be spending twenty quid if you park in the bigger, more expensive car parks."
Marie suffers from mobility issues and said she finds Cwmbran easier to navigate.
"It's nice and flat. If you go to other cities, it's difficult. It's fine if you're in the shopping centre in Cardiff or Newport, but actually getting there from the bus station or the train station, it's difficult."
Shoppers Sarah Williams and Sue Vernon said Cwmbran offers everything they need in one place.
"I live a stone's throw away, my kids go to school here. It is convenient - everything is here," Sarah said. "If you're going into Newport of Cardiff you're spending a fortune on car parks, so the free parking makes it a lot easier.
"The last time I went to Cardiff shopping the prices keep going up and up and up."
"You've got the theatre over there, you've got the cinema, you've got places to eat," Sue added.
"When I was a child, Newport was my day out. But not now. You've got the industrial estates with B&Q or Next if you want something a bit different. But from town it is walking distance."
New research released in January by Centre for Cities revealed Newport is thought to have the most closed shops in the UK by area, with more than one-third of its shops closed permanently. You can read what shoppers and traders in Newport made of those findings here.
Centre for Cities data shows that from March 2020 to September 2021 suburbs outperformed city centres considerably, with city centres losing 28 weeks’ worth of sales while suburban areas lost just nine.
The future of Wales' shopping centres themselves have been in question with reports of financial struggles and declining values. Last year a property consultant said the values of shopping centres "have been absolutely murdered" over the past 10 years, with many now worth a fraction of their original price. You can read more about that here.
Welsh cities have all been hit by the high-profile closure of Debenhams. Newport has lost The Body Shop, Jack & Jones, Schuh and Flying Tiger in the past two years, while Cardiff has also suffered major losses such as Gap, Disney and Currys.
Cwmbran Centre currently has 23 empty units - a vacancy rate of just 12% compared to Friars Walk, which according to its website has 36 occupied units - a 32% vacancy rate.
Ryan Cheadle is store manager at the Television and Movie Store, which opened in July 2021.
"This had been an empty unit for a while so we took the opportunity to see how we'd get on. But it's been really good," he said.
"I think Cwmbran has been pretty good for not having empty units. It hasn't ended up falling into the trappings of what we've seen on a standard high street. The empty units remain really, really low.
"It's not being derogatory - I know places have got units to fill - so places have had to take up a lot more coffee shops and charity shops. Cwmbran hasn't had that as much. There's a nice, eclectic mixture here. It's a town people will travel to, but it's still got a nice amount of cafes and restaurants."
With a mixture of chains like Poundland and Primark and smaller niche stores like the Television and Movie Store, Warhammer and a fancy dress shop, Ryan said he also felt Cwmbran was less reliant on big names filling large shops.
"I think it's much less reliant on huge superstores. Obviously Newport's huge draw was Debenhams, which sadly didn't work. Cardiff the same.
"It's a bit risky. You do have House of Fraser here, but otherwise it's not as reliant on filling huge, massive units."
Ryan said Cwmbran was a more compact space which resulted in less of the type of problems that drew people away from larger towns and cities.
"You have got constant security around the town centre - we do see less antisocial behaviour," he assured. "I've managed stores in Newport and I must admit I'm not overly comfortable going through Newport city centre.
"Here, security is very visible. You see it all day long, they're looping the town. It's a weird one, but maybe even the shape and layout helps too. It's a very nice, pleasant walk around as opposed to going all the way down a street."
Tasha Hawkins works as assistant manager at Boswell's cafe, which opened just after the first lockdown in 2020. She thinks the Cwmbran Centre is unique as it has both the feel of a town centre and a shopping centre.
"If you look at Cwmbran, you think it's going to be a small town centre with hardly any shops, but we've actually got quite a variety, shops like Primark," she said.
"If you go to small towns, you don't usually find shops like that. But here we are all compact, it's not too spread out, whereas you've got to go all the way to one shops, and all the way then to another [in bigger cities].
"You can go to Merthyr, but you've got some shops and then you've got to drive to get to another.
"Boswell's waited and waited to get the spot where we are now, and grabbed it when it went up for sale. It's perfect, everyone goes through here."
Tracy Stokes runs La Belle Femme clothes shop in Newport city centre. She opened a shop in Cwmbran Centre last November and recently suffered damage to her shop due to a fire at her premises.
"They say the kids are bad in Newport but there are problems here too," she said. "There are teenagers but people just don't hear about it because it happens at night. Both the management and the security were amazing when it happened, I have to say."
Tracy said she had noticed little difference in footfall between Newport and Cwmbran.
"I find with Cwmbran that the older people come out during the weeks as they find it safer. Saturday is the family time where you get all different ages in town.
"I haven't found a massive difference [in footfall]."
"The rates and rents here are double what they are in Newport," she said.
"We have free rates at the moment but not long after I started here, I got a rates bill of £8,700 for four months. That has been sorted now thankfully. There is a service charge as well because you are in a private shopping centre.
"If you look at shopping centres owned by a huge company, they might not care if a place is empty. With private landlords, they might care more if they're losing money."
Dr Neil Harris is a senior lecturer in statutory planning at the School of Geography and Planning in Cardiff University.
He said the history and development of Cwmbran meant it had some unique characteristics.
"Effectively the town centre is privately owned and managed, including the streets," he said. "That was its legacy as a New Town, where a town centre was built and run by private owners. You might need permission to busk or sell things on the streets, or take photos in the town centre, because it's privately owned.
"That makes it quite distinctive. It is well managed by a single organisation."
Dr Harris said the town had also benefited from its planners working hard to maintain links between major developments in Cwmbran. This had resulted in, for example, one of the main supermarkets being linked to the main town centre via a bridge when it was built.
"If you are doing your weekly food shop you might also pop into the town centre, whereas you might not if it was one or two miles outside the town centre. That might have impacted negatively on the town centre. That has been very careful and deliberate.
"Some things were opportunistic, such as the decline in industrial sites in Cwmbran which are not available in other areas."
Amid retail's struggles, a greater focus on food, drink and entertainment has been mentioned as a potential way forward for UK high streets. The £6 million redevelopment of Newport market is set to be completed in March and will include a food court and bar as well as office space, revamped market stalls and a gym and rooftop garden. It follows the success of similar sites such as Goodsheds in Barry and the recently redeveloped Corp Market in Cardiff which now has a cafe and bar in additional to traders and the outdoor food vendors in Corporation Yard.
Ryan Cheadle thinks high streets will become mainly experience-based which will present challenges for retail.
"You have to have demonstrations or interactive products. The days of 'hi there, can I help you sir?' are long gone now. A lot of our products are premium and at risk of being damaged, so people will come to us rather than go through the post. We do get that passing trade as well.
"It's hard - how do we change what we've been doing for 100 years?"
Alisa Jones manages Cwmbran Fancy Dress which has been in the centre for six years.
"I think we could do with a Nando's or something, bring people in - make it more of a hub for people to come rather than a shopping centre. Somewhere to meet people and talk. Everyone has missed that, I think.
"I think we need a bit more leisure in the town centre. That would be nice."
Despite its success, there are some inescapable differences between Cwmbran and a traditional city or town.
While there is a Wetherspoon, cafes and restaurants, anyone in search of a late-night dance in a nightclub or a gig might be best looking elsewhere.
"We're both past that now," shopper Sarah Williams laughed. "You've got restaurants here, if you want to go they're quite close, you don't have to pay for a taxi or bus or train fare.
"I think in Newport their mistake was bringing in a lot of the big brands - people can't afford them. People having to spend money on parking, at the moment in the current climate people can't pay to do shopping.
"It's a different offering here. There are shops people can afford."
"I suppose for the younger people who want clubs and things like that, they have to go further afield," Sue Vernon added. "But people from further afield, Abergavenny etc, do come here because it's convenient."
Dr Neil Harris said cities might be able to replicate some elements of Cwmbran's success.
"A town centre could think of coordinating traders, in the way some have started doing through business improvement districts, and think about the public realm and the wider experience.
"Cwmbran probably has less in terms of night-time economy, music venues, but it will have to move towards that as most towns will not be able to rely on retail."
Julie Price has lived in Newport for a decade and said she has always preferred shopping there rather than in Cwmbran.
"It feels a bit alien to me," she said. "I don't go to Cwmbran, there's nothing for me there. A lot of these places are all homogenised.
"Newport as a city centre has a history, it has architecture. If you go, there are things to look at.
"There are people there who I might run into. It's somewhere for me to meet people or do opportunity shopping."
Tasha Hawkins from Boswell's agreed the advantages of Cwmbran would be naturally harder to replicate in places like Cardiff.
"Cardiff is so big, you can't just make it smaller. It is the way it is. You can't change that."
Adam Martin, LCP director and Head of Bristol, who has recently taken over the management of the Cwmbran Centre, said the LCP Group recognised the huge potential of the centre.
“It’s rare to find a shopping centre like Cwmbran that is actually a town centre, with wide catchment across Gwent and Monmouthshire,” he said.
“It’s well used and has consistent demand and we can see there is a strong opportunity to add value to it by adding new national high street names and local, independent traders.
“We’re in active talks with more than two dozen retailers, both local and national, and are in the late stages of negotiating terms with six new tenants.
“We are confident that out of the 23 vacant units, more than 50% will be let in the next couple of months. Under our management, we plan to improve The Cwmbran Centre because it is a destination to be proud of.”
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