The Hub

The Hub was the main base of operations for Torchwood Three, analogous to Torchwood One's Torchwood Tower and Torchwood Two's office in Glasgow. The Hub was located directly under Roald Dahl Plass in central Cardiff, also the location of the Cardiff rift. The Hub was connected to the rest of the Torchwood Institute via organic computer.

The Hub was built in and around the remains of a Victorian water pumping station. The lowest level of the central area was therefore several inches deep in water and usually hosted a colony of mosquitos in the Summer months. (PROSE: Slow Decay) This basin of water rose and fell with the tide, sometimes trapping fish, including, on one occasion, a bream. It had a valve control to prevent it from flooding the Hub. (PROSE: Another Life)

Features

 * Invisible lift. This lift led directly from the hub to Roald Dahl Plass above. Torchwood personnel could enter or leave without arousing suspicion, since the exit benefited from the effects of the perception filter of a TARDIS that once stood above it. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
 * The main entrance was disguised as a Tourist Information Centre. It was located on Mermaid Quay. (PROSE: Another Life)
 * Jack Harkness' office, which housed a few of his personal belongings and appeared to have TARDIS coral among them. The windows of his office also contained engravings in circular Gallifreyan.
 * Main hall (including workstations and entrances to other Hub features)
 * Cryo-chambers. Bodies of deceased Torchwood employees as well as aliens. Anomalous humans (dead or placed in suspended animation) were also stored here.
 * Conference room.
 * Safe containing various alien artefacts.
 * Autopsy room.
 * Interrogation room.
 * Holding cells. (Mainly used to hold captured Weevils).
 * A firing range.
 * Vehicular entrance. An entrance for the Torchwood SUV, hidden in the basement of the Bute Place car park. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
 * A kitchen (PROSE: Another Life)
 * Deep-sea aquarium. A room of water tanks deep in the Hub which contained deep-sea animals from Earth's seas. They had been stored there from since before Jack Harkness arrived. (PROSE: Slow Decay)
 * Rest and Recreation room (PROSE: Another Life)
 * Jack Harkness' sleeping area, a bed located beneath a manhole cover.
 * A secret dock leading into Cardiff Bay which, until 2009, contained a small ship called the Sea Queen. (AUDIO: The Sin Eaters) The Sea Queen was replaced by the Sea Queen II. There was also a submarine, but it had been lost between 1970 and 2009. (PROSE: Risk Assessment)
 * A pteranodon habitat for Myfanwy.
 * Torchwood Archive, containing numerous files on alien life forms and artefacts, among other things. Maintained by Ianto Jones.

After being seriously damaged in an explosion, (TV: End of Days) the main area of the Hub underwent some remodelling, but remained basically the same. (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) It experienced more damage when the Earth was relocated to the Medusa Cascade. (TV: The Stolen Earth)

Following the destruction of the Hub during the 456 incident, Gwen Cooper was able to retrieve Harkness' vortex manipulator from the wreckage. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One, Day Two, Day Five) Angelo Colasanto's men were able to salvage a null field generator. (TV: End of the Road)

By 2011, Roald Dahl Plass had been rebuilt — Gwen, Jack, and Rex Matheson visited the site prior to Jack and Gwen's rendition to the US, but all signs of the Torchwood Hub had disappeared. (TV: The New World)

By 2017 the reestablished Torchwood team had moved back into the ruins of the Hub. The invisible lift moved much faster than it was supposed to, with St John Colchester describing it as a "death trap" and commenting that the team should be wearing hard hats at all times due to the Hub's damaged state. The Hub's power was being stolen from a local fusion restaurant called Thaixicana. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)