Gone but once great characters, pubs from our city’s proud past

LAST week we took a look at The PubGoer’s Guide-Book for 1967 and this week we are fast-forwarding to 1995, when Dave Matthews brought out The Complete Guide to Cardiff’s Pubs.

Published by Lakeside Publishing, this 52-page gem contained a number of interesting facts, such as that the Grand Hotel offered football changing-rooms and the Philharmonic had a rifle range.

Bute Street at one time had 31 pubs. And in Cardiff city centre in 1849 there were 48 pubs, of which nine were still open in 1995.

As for the haunted pubs of Cardiff, these included the Great Eastern Hotel, in Adamsdown, haunted by a Mr Evans.

The Splotlands, Adamsdown, was haunted by Matilda; the Paddle Steamer, Butetown, had a ghost called Arnold; Highfield Inn, Ely, was haunted by Mrs Cowley; the Quarryhouse in Fairwater was famed for the spectre of the Green Lady; and the Three Elms, Whitchurch, had the resident ghost of a blacksmith.

On a less supernatural note, the Crown, Butetown, had a parrot named Captain, the Eldon Arms, Riverside, had a parrot known as Ossie and the parrot in the Mitre, in Riverside, was called Charlie.

The sports-mad Ty Pwll Coch, in Cowbridge Road East, meanwhile, “boasted nine skittle and four darts teams”. Were you in one of those teams?

The book also notes that the Canton Cross Inn in Leckwith Road “was originally a coaching inn and from 18601904 was the Canton Cross Brewery. During the war it was known as the War Office since it was used as a joining-up office.”

And did you know that Cromwell