RAISE A GLASS TO ONE OF CITY’S BEST-KNOWN DRINKING HOLES
IT’S been a theatre, a bingo hall, a laser game centre and even an erotic film cinema.
Cardiff’s Prince of Wales pub is a venue with decades of history.
Ahead of its planned reopening this week after a £1m refurbishment, we’ve looked at the colourful history and characters who have made it such a legendary venue.
Built in 1838, the Prince of Wales first opened its doors as the New Theatre Royal after the original theatre in Park Place burned down in a fire.
Attracting audiences of up to 2,000 people, opening-night reviews describe the venue as “a picture of beauty never yet equalled in Cardiff”.
From there, the theatre grew in popularity.
Hard times saw it close at the start of WWI, reopening six years later under the name The Playhouse.
It saw the opening night of the Welsh National Opera and countless celebrities treading the boards.
Since then, the theatre has continued to attract drama, becoming everything from a laser centre to bingo hall, bargain basement and sex theatre. But it has plenty of hidden secrets.
The Prince of Wales was originally the site of St Mary’s Church, which was destroyed in the great flood of 1607. However, it wasn’t until 1701 that the church was finally abandoned, with the last service held in the roofless ruin.
The outline of that church can still be seen today, built in brick on the side of the building nearest to where the new BBC headquarters is being built.
After hosting its last performance as a theatre in 1965, the Prince of Wales became a cinema, later specialising in erotic films.
When the cinema closed on June 30, 1984, the last films it showed were as a double bill – “Alexandra, Queen of Sex” and “Boys and Girls Together”.
It went on to become a bingo hall and laser game venue to Caesar’s Nightclub and a casino.
Echo columnist and Cardiff historian Brian Lee said: “I remember when it was a casino.
“There was a parrot on the stairs and people used to blow cigarette smoke in its face – it would get a bit nasty. It was just a place you would go on a Saturday night.
“Apparently they said it was as good as some of the casinos you would see in London. A friend of mine had three weeks of wages, which was £79 then, and he lost it all in one night.”
With nearly 75 years of live theatre taking place under its roof, it comes as no surprise that the Prince of Wales has seen its fair share of celebrities.
Lawrence Olivier and Richard Burton are both reported to have performed there.
Sir Ian McKellen has visited for a quick tour and a drink.
In the 1880s American champion and the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing John L Sullivan held an exhibition in the theatre, showing his skills as the “Boston Strong Boy”.
In 1904, famous Victorian actor Henry Irving made his farewell visit to Cardiff as an actor, performing his five most popular plays to a sold-out audience.
Irving, who died the following year, was the first man to get knighted for his work as an actor and is thought to the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
At only 12 years old, one of the playhouse’s best-loved performers was Cardiff’s own Little Jane – known for charming the crowds with her singing and dancing.
Now 96, Jane started performing as Little Red Riding Hood in the theatre’s annual pantomime in the 1920s.
Looking back, the great-grandmother of seven said: “You had to be 12 to perform professionally, I earned about £2 a week for that. I won a talent show and that was the start, the prize was a week’s engagement in Porthcawl singing and dancing.
“I went on to the pantomime and played Little Red Riding Hood. I can honestly say I loved it.”
From there, Little Jane became involved in the theatre’s variety shows, performing every night alongside Little Vera and Little Olive with acts including contortionists and acrobats.
She said: “My friend Olive Guppie’s mother was a seamstress and she used to make the costumes for me. The one I liked was a short black dress with yellow frills.”
For Jane, highlights of the Playhouse included not just the limelight but also the adventures with other children backstage.
The former Rhiwbina resident said: “Because I was only 12 I didn’t have to sit with the others, there was other young people and we used to play marbles in the auditorium. If you were under 14 you had to be out of the theatre by 10pm. We used to start hiding in the theatre until [the wardens] were gone.”
“I used to have homework and I used to do it in the dressing room. In those days you had a pen and ink and they used to say the ink would go on the costumes.”
Jane’s days at the theatre continued until the Playhouse’s closure in 1924, never shaking her nickname as Little Jane.
The theatre also saw some more controversial figures.
In 1934, leader of the British Union of Fascists Oswald Mosley took to the stage. Speaking to a 1,000-strongcrowd, with members of the party patrolling the Playhouse, he claimed his movement had a “great spiritual appeal, so the Welsh character can express itself through fascism”.
He also went on to blame “Jewish interests” for the poor turnout, claiming they stopped him getting a “big hall”.
While the curtain officially closed on the theatre in 1965, the building continued to see its fair share of drama.
On August 12, 1966 the building – then a cinema – became the site of a high-profile police search for a notorious criminal called Harry Roberts. He was wanted for shooting three policemen in Shepherd’s Bush in London.
A report published in the South Wales Echo five days later showed police searching the venue.
The alarm was raised after both the cinema doorman and a 12-year-old boy saw a man on the catwalk above the stage and jumped to the same conclusion – that Roberts was in Cardiff.
Roberts was eventually found 96 days after the crime at a farm nearly 200 miles away from Cardiff.
The building opened its doors as a Wetherspoon pub in 1999 and has been the place to go for Saturday nights out and match days ever since.
If you go in today, you can still see the venue’s former life as a theatre.
For shift manager Jordan Janes-Lobjoit, working at such historic venue for the past year comes with highs and lows.
The 24-year-old said: “It has a reputation for being a cruel mistress but it’s definitely rewarding when you finish a really difficult shift.”
For Jordan, highlights of the job include the pub’s many admirers – some more well-known than others.
He said: “You have people that turn up just to have a look around. It’s nice to share this little piece of Cardiff history right at our fingertips. More often than not it’s theatre students that love to see the upstairs.
“Sir Ian McKellen came in to visit last year – he came in unannounced to have a visit.
“We managed to show him around and show him the old stands.
“He’s an old theatre fan so he came in with his entourage. He loved every second – he was the first person up the stairs.”
The pub’s other main clientele are rugby fans who pack in for match days.
Jordan said: “Match days are unreal – we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of gallons of beer.
“We call it the power hour before the match starts and we can easily have 70 members of staff on the bar or on the floor.
“Sometimes it can be a short five or six-hour shift. Sometimes you come in at 3pm and you’re there until we shut for the day at 1am, and you have to do the close-down so it can be three or four in the morning.”
However, for the shift manager, no matter how busy the Prince of Wales also has its perks.
He said: “You need to be concentrating to make sure that everyone is safe when you are at that sort of capacity and to make sure that nothing goes wrong but at the same time it’s really, really enjoyable.
“You see all those fans coming together and they all have this mutual love of something and they’re sharing a song or sharing a pint with the opposite team. Cardiff is a rugby city so it’s really nice to see people arm in arm from the opposite team.”