Protected areas of capital city you never knew about
Cardiff has 25 protected conservation areas, Thomas Deacon reveals the stories behind them...
CONSERVATION areas are areas of special architectural or historic interest.
A decision to designate an area a conservation area is made after an appraisal of the area.
Cardiff council said this often extends beyond just the buildings, with the road layout, street scene, and green areas all contributing factors.
St Mary Street
The area, although mainly Victorian, reflects the old medieval street pattern focused around St. John the Baptist Church and Cardiff Castle.
The northern end and the market and the quayside, where the river followed its original course along the route of the present day Westgate Street, marked the western edge.
The council said: “Little physical representation of the original course of the River Taff exists today, though the historic interest of the area is still reflected in the area’s street names.
“Golate ran to the Taff a few yards downstream and may have been used for the loading and unloading of goods away from the attention of customs.”
Historic plans and maps demonstrate that the southern half of St. Mary Street was the only part of Cardiff that saw a substantial change in layout between 1600 and 1800.
Conway Road
The fields which make up the Manors of Llandaff and Canton were owned and managed by the Mathews family for almost 400 years.
But in 1818 former solicitor general Sir Samuel Romilly bought the land and a few decades later the estate was offered as freehold building ground for sale.
The two lots offered in Canton were purchased by the Cardiff Freehold Land Society.
The group was part of a wider movement across the UK, and people who bought a plot of freehold land through the society and built a house with a minimum value of £150 gained the right to vote.
While many societies succeeded in their aim of building houses and achieving voting rights for their owners, few areas survive intact today.
Mount Stuart Square, Butetown
Cardiff owes much of its history to the Industrial Revolution of the 1790s.
As well as new docks, a grid pattern residential suburb for port-related workers was built, though much of the best housing was soon converted or demolished for business premises, particularly in Mount Stuart Square which became the area’s commercial centre.
Cardiff Council said: “Mount Stuart Square area displays an eclectic mix of buildings of different scale and styles that visually tell a story of how the area developed, prospered, declined and then started to adapt to a new role in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.”
Insole Court, Llandaff
The Insole family story closely follows Cardiff’s rise and decline during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
The Insoles were coal-shippers and mine-owners, railwaymen and docksmen at a time when Wales was dominant in the coal industry.
The family reached the height of its prosperity in the late 19th Century having acquired large land holdings, central to which was their home, which survives in Llandaff, on the outskirts of Cardiff.
James Harvey Insole started building a modest double-fronted family home in Llandaff in 1856, but later extended the house inspired by the design of Cardiff Castle.
James’ son, George Frederick, at the height of Edwardian prosperity, doubled the size of the house once again.
But after the First World War the family’s fortunes declined in parallel with coal across South Wales.
In 1932 Cardiff Corporation acquired the estate to make way for Cardiff’s new road system, and the ornamental park was sold for housing and streets were given the Insole names they still carry.
Cardiff Road
This stretch of Cardiff Road developed as part of the city’s rapid expansion in the late 19th Century.
The large houses and villas were owned by wealthy merchants, drawn to the outskirts of Llandaff, which had become a much-sought after residential area - partly due to revived interest in the newly renovated cathedral.
St Fagans
People are thought to have lived in the village of St Fagans since prehistoric times.
It first became an important site when Norman conquerors built a motte and castle to control crossing the river Ely.
In 1648 the Civil War was brought to St Fagans.
The castle and grounds remained under the ownership of the Plymouth Estate until 1947, when the Earl of Plymouth donated St Fagans Castle and its grounds to the National Museum of Wales as a site for a folk museum.
Cathays Park
The conservation area is one of several that cover Cardiff city centre, and includes several of the city’s most recognisable buildings.
The civic centre in the park was developed in the early 1900s and includes City Hall, The National Museum and Gallery of Wales, Law Courts and Cardiff University.
Cathedral Road
The Cathedral Road conservation area lies to the north west of the city centre and is made up of late Victorian and Edwardian buildings.
The area was developed in the late 19th Century by the third Marquis of Bute.
Cathedral Road was designed as a grand avenue, with the houses in the streets behind being built with a more standardised approach to reflect the hierarchy of the time.
Melingriffith, Whitchurch
The small conservation area’s history is closely linked to the industrial history of the whole of South Wales.
Melingriffith played its part in this, reaching its peak in the 1870s under the ownership of Richard Thomas & Co, which came to dominate the British tinplate industry.
Charles Street
A large part of this area, just off from one of the city’s busiest roads, dates from the 1850s.
The small conservation area includes two places of worship and former homes dating from the mid 19th Century.
Much quieter than the nearby Queen Street, the area is home to the St David’s Metropolitan Roman Catholic Cathedral and Ebeneser Church alongside the terraced buildings.
The council said: “As a whole, they offer a rare glimpse of Cardiff’s character prior to its expansion at the end of the 19th century.”
St Catwgs, Pentrych
It is believed that St Catwg chose the site at Pentyrch where the present church stands due to the existence of a ‘magic well’ or spring nearby, known
as Ffynnon Catwg or Catwg’s well.
Church Road, Whitchurch
Cardiff Council said: “The Heol Don and Church Road area is dominated by individually designed Victorian and Edwardian houses, both detached and semi-detached.
“They are surrounded by stone and brick walls and large mature trees, which together, create a special and distinct quality to this part of Whitchurch.”
Churchill Way
One of the busiest roads in the city centre is made up of 10 pairs of Victorian villas alongside a former chapel at the south end.
Originally built as houses, the buildings have remained largely unaltered despite being turned into businesses.
Craig y Parc, Pentyrch
Settlement in the area can be traced back to at least 3,000 years ago, with burial mounds from the time found on Garth Hill.
The Craig-y-Parc area evolved slowly over time and up until the first part of the 20th Century, the only development in the area was related to farming.
The village and surrounding land was made a conservation area due to its rural landscape and individual buildings that vary in age and style.
Gwaelod y Garth, Pentrych
Gwaelod y Garth is an industrial settlement in the Parish of Pentyrch located at the foot of Garth Hill.
Archaeological finds in the area suggest a continuous occupation from as early as the middle stone ages with flints found in the area.
It is believed later settlers lived in nearby caves, and finds in the cave suggest a continuous occupation of the area until the Romans arrived.
The area developed as an industrial settlement, due to the natural mineral wealth and it’s position next to the River Taff.
The first large scale ironworks were introduced in the area by the Sidney Family in 1565.
The business continued until it was discovered they were associated with illegal weapons making, and fell into ruins by 1625.
Mining in the area continued until the end of the 19th Century, and its strong industrial past contributed to it becoming a conservation area.
Llandaff
Llandaff dates back to at least the 6th Century, though its importance grew in the 12th century when it was chosen by the Norman rulers as their Bishop’s Seat.
The cathedral, the Bishop’s Castle and ruined Bell Tower are all a mark of Llandaff’s early importance, defining it as a distinct and separate neighbour to Cardiff, still a small port and town.
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Oakfield Street, Plasnewydd
Oakfield Street was built between 1860 and 1900 on a small piece of agricultural land forming part of the Roath Court Estate.
The “tranquil” nature of the area and the listed St Anne’s Church all contributed to the road becoming a conservation area.
Old St Mellons
Records from the 19th Century show the growth and roles of the village; it contained two forges, a wheelwright, tearooms, a bake house, a doctors surgery, a resident nurse as well as public houses.
Public houses in St Mellons benefited from the Welsh Sunday Closing Act (preventing public houses in certain areas from opening on Sundays) as it did not apply to Monmouthshire before 1921.
Later plans of the area show that St Mellons village evolved slowly and incrementally; a plan from the 1940s shows the village still bearing much resemblance to a map dated nearly 100 years earlier.
Pierhead
The conservation area shares a similar history to the Mount Stuart Square site.
Some of the areas included in the conservation site are the Pierhead building itself, Roald Dahl Plass, the Senedd and Windsor Esplanade.
Queen Street
Queen Street is the main road through the city centre, and is now fully pedestrianised.
Most of the street, from the castle moat to Dumfries Place, used to be called Crockherbtown (Crockherbtown Lane can still be found off Park Place),but the street was renamed in honour of Queen Victoria in 1886.
Rhiwbina Garden Village
The garden village was developed by the Housing Reform Company and Welsh Town Planning and Housing Trust Ltd.
The layout was based upon the “Masterplan” prepared d by Raymond Unwin, one of the leading architects of the Garden City movement.
Development began in 1913 and until 1976 the village was run as a cooperative.
Cardiff Council said: “The designation of the Rhiwbina Garden Village Conservation Area in 1976 gave formal recognition to its historical and architectural quality and provided an opportunity to manage change, and to ensure that roads, footpaths and open areas were maintained with regard for their sensitive character.”
Roath Park, Roath Mill Gardens and Roath Park Lake and Gardens
In July 1889 work started on Roath Park while at around the same time, the first contracts were given for the construction of the surrounding road.
In 1906 Lord Tredegar donated the land to be made into the Roath Mill Gardens.
Roath Park became the first publicly owned park in Cardiff, and was “ambitiously conceived” to provide a wide variety of activities for residents.
Cardiff Council said: “Today, Roath Park is recognised as one of the fi nest late Victorian public parks in Britain.”
Tredegarville, Plasnewydd
Development of the eastern suburbs of the city was started in the 1850s by Charles Morgan of the Tredegar Estate.
He laid out of a grid of four new streets east of Windsor Place and the Taff Vale Railway and north of Newport Road.
Named The Parade, The Walk, West Grove and East Grove, these streets were collectively known as ‘Tredegarville.’
The Taff Vale Railway and later the Rhymney Valley Railway were built to transport goods down the valleys to Cardiff Docks and ran adjacent to Tredegarville separating it from the city itself.
Windsor Place, Cathays
Windsor Place and St Andrews Crescent were purposefully and carefully planned, as an important route to the commercial centre, and to “create a pleasant environment for their wealthy merchant residents”.
While this area was originally built as high status housing, records from 1889 onwards show an increasing presence of professional businesses, with a significant increase of solicitors with the advent of the Court in the Civic Centre.
Wordsworth Avenue
For centuries, the area where the Wordsworth Avenue Conservation Area now stands was open farmland.
Constructed in 1850, Wordsworth Avenue was a blind road planted with trees, leading north from Newport Road.
The council said: “The quality of form and architectural detailing on the buildings in Wordsworth Avenue is a result of the wealth enjoyed by Cardiff during this period, and in particular the Tredegar Estate.”