How Cardiff could have been the ‘Venice of Wales’

WILL you permit me a Yes? Good. I have recently found out the true extent of the Glamorganshire Canal that used to flow into the Welsh capital from Merthyr.

The steel, iron, lime and coal that flowed down the canal from the Valleys was internationally renowned.

Canals literally helped build the modern world, as they powered the Industrial Revolution.

Very much the motorways of their day, they enabled industrial and agricultural materials to be transported long distances around the country and between key locations.

However, by the turn of the 20th century the railways, and subsequently motor transport on the roads, were a more efficient option than horse-drawn canal barges.

As a result, many canals became redundant and fell into dereliction. In some cities (like Birmingham) they remained in use, sometimes because industrial buildings had been densely built adjacent to the canals, meaning the waterways remained a viable option.

Once rail arrived, the canals rapidly lost business and often were also bought up – by 1900 the Great Western Railway Company owned 13 canals. Only profitable canals that could maintain an advantage in some way survived.

These include the intricate network in Birmingham, the large-scale transshipments from the Thames in London, moving boat trains of coal to power stations in Yorkshire, transporting the new commodity of oil in 400-tonne barges through Gloucester or carrying ocean liners on the Manchester Ship Canal.

However in Cardiff they have, in the main, gone.

But what if they weren’t a relic of Cardiff’s past and instead an intrinsic part of the city’s DNA like they are in Manchester or Birmingham?

The Glamorganshire Canal flowed into Cardiff along North Road, past the Castle and down the Hayes and modern Mill Lane.

For the sake of fun, shall we imagine what could have been? Lets picture “the Canal City of Cardiff”. little daydream?

Perhaps Cardiff University students walking to lectures from Talybont would have strolled along the banks of a modern waterway, avoiding early-morning anglers as they nursed their hangovers.

Maybe the “Canal Park Run” would exist, with runners pounding up and down the Glamorganshire every Saturday morning.

City workers may have left their offices to enjoy a waterside lunch by the Cardiff Law Courts. The suburbs may have featured the odd barge or houseboat.

Maybe when Wales played in the Six Nations, people would park their cars north of the M4 and hire a narrowboat to cruise to the game in peaceful leisure.

Flights of fancy? Possibly, but not beyond the realms of possibility.

Cities like Birmingham have made the canals a selling point, not an obsolete mode of transport.

During my research into the topic, I spoke to an expert from the Canal and River Trust.

He put it perfectly, saying: “By the 1970s it was only through the tireless work of volunteers and local organisations that prevented canals being closed completely.

“And in many places some canals were built over or simply left to die.

“From these ashes a second golden age of canals began to grow, predominantly built around the leisure industry. “The waterways are now thriving, with hundreds of millions of visitors each year and more boats on the water since any time in the Industrial Revolution. Canals offer unique green/blue corridors through towns and cities. “A few decades ago buildings would’ve been built to face away from the canals, as they were seen as dirty backwaters. “That’s all different now. You only have to look at cities like Birmingham, Leeds and London, among others, where the canals are now a major feature, with homes, restaurants, bars and shops built around the water space.

“This creates new destinations for the city, providing an opportunity for jobs, entertainment and leisure activities that benefit residents and visitors alike.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not expecting the council to start digging up streets tomorrow to create a Little Venice.

I am not even saying that it would be desirable to have the canals back now.

However, in a world where we are increasingly eager to build over and “develop” our historic buildings and infrastructure, it’s worth thinking about how the city in which we live could be very different.

If the winds of history had blown one way instead of another, perhaps you could even have punted to work this morning.