A Poundland, a 24-hour McDonald’s popular with Saturday night revellers and a branch of Ann Summers do not usually scream high street charm.

Yet such snobbiness is misguided because those shops — along with a Next, WH Smith and a handful of independent retailers — have helped to put Queen Street in Cardiff at the top of the high street charts.

A new list of the UK’s most appealing high streets, compiled by American ­Express and the retail experts GlobalData, ranked the Welsh street at No 1, pipping Gloucester’s central shopping streets, which took the silver.

Eastgate Street in Chester was ranked third, with Church Street in ­Liverpool and Princes Street in Edinburgh also ranking highly. London failed to make the top ten, with King’s