Artist captures lost buildings of our capital

IT CAN feel like every time you come into Cardiff a new building has appeared.

From Central Square to blocks of student accommodation, there are changes happening everywhere.

But in years to come people will want to look back and see what stood in the place of new skyscrapers and buildings.

Since the late 1960s, artist Mary Traynor has been capturing buildings in Cardiff and the surrounding area which are at threat of demolition.

She specialised in theatre which got her interested in buildings and architecture.

Her images include Adamsdown School, Penarth Bath, and the moving of Custom House, as well as the design, Cardiff’s intricate detail of Clarence Bridge.

Mrs Traynor, 83, from Penylan, continues to paint and is currently working on a picture of the Citadel in Splott and also hopes to capture Cardiff Royal Infirmary.

Her work has been displayed in various exhibitions over the years but now her collection has been donated to the Glamorgan Archives.

Volunteers are now going through the works to preserve them for years to come.

She said she wanted her work to document the changes in the city.

“Cardiff was changing so much and a lot of buildings were being demolished,” she said. “I felt that the older buildings had to be recorded.”

She hasn’t kept count of the exact number of buildings she has documented but she believes the best and most interesting should be preserved.

Mrs Traynor said that “99%” of her images are completed from sketches on site and she rarely uses photographs as “that’s not what I prefer”.

She said donating her work to the archives was a way to keep a record of the city.

“They record the history of South Wales and these are part of that history,” she added.

Volunteer David Webb has been working to record the history of the building to go with the images and images are being released via the Glamorgan Archives website.

Your Gallery: Pages 34&35