Dark side of Cardiff’s history revealed in chilling new book
ONE of the stories in John F Wake’s recently published Horrors Of The Dead House – Policing The Streets Of Old Cardiff is titled Street Of Shame: Flagon Alley. Well, Flagon Alley was, as it happens, Cairns Street in the Cathays area of our beloved city until in 1935 after 184 of its residents petitioned the local authority to have its name changed and it then became Rhymney Street.
I recall my late friend Emrys Davies who lived there before moving to nearby Coburn Street telling me that it was at one time notorious for being a very rough street and we learn that: “Drunkenness was normalised in some parts of the street and domestic incidents between households were common.”
It seems that the police were always being called there in days long gone, but having lived a couple streets away in Thesiger Street for most of my early life I can safely say it was no better or worse than any other of the surrounding streets.
My best school pal Ronnie Morgan lived in Rhymney Street also another good friend Vic Wheeler as did a one time girlfriend called Audrey.
Readers who enjoyed some of the author’s other books such as CardiffThose Cruel & Savage Streets and The Cruel Streets Revisited will want to read this one which also has stories to
tell about another area of Cardiff I knew quite well – the city centre.
My maternal grandparents, the Donovans lived, in Frederick Street just a matter of yards from Mary Ann Street where we learn that Justice Vaughan Williams in 1894 had this to say: “Year by year, month by month and almost week by week, Mary Ann Street furnishes chapter after chapter
to the criminal annals of Cardiff.
Assize after Assize Mary Ann Street figures with conspicuous notoriety as the scene of crimes ranging in gravity from murder to robbery with violence, and in each instance gross systematic immorality is at the bottom of it.
“Brothel-keepers have been fined time after time, but still the evil is as rampant as ever.’’
This book is not for the fainthearted and as the author says in his preface that in part the book makes for difficult and harrowing reading.
For instance, the stories of newly born babies been pushed down foul smelling public overflowing toilet closets and the Dead Houses, as they were called, which were situated in Maria Street and Mill Lane.
The latter one was meant only for unidentified bodies coming into the area, some of whom died accidentally or were drowned.
On a lighter note there is the delightful story of Rodney – Cardiff ’s first police dog – whose fame among ambulance staff, firemen and the police led to him being taken on tours, being presented at annual dinners and leading processions.
Readers will revisit many of the long gone city centre and Tiger Bay pubs such as the Lifeboat near Little Frederick Street the Rothesay Castle on the corner of South Church Street, known for some reason or other as the House of Blazes, and The Greyhound in Bridge Street.
The author for many years was a Cardiff City police officer who worked from the Bute Street (Tiger Bay) Police Station in the 1960s. He also worked at various stations as a Detective Constable, Detective Sergeant and Detective Inspector and retired in 1994.
He’s a man of many parts having run several businesses including initiating the first Cardiff open-top guided bus tours and founded several Welsh shops and tours and his media career has spanned several decades.
Incidentally, there are a number of pictures of the people of Cairns Street and nearby Cranbrook Street in the two books – Cathays, Maindy Gabalfa and Mynachdy which I compiled around 20 years ago now.
Horrors Of The Dead House – Policing The Streets Of Old Cardiff by John F Wake is published by WordCatcher Publishing at £12.99.
Copies can be obtained from Sion y Felin Bookshop in Merthyr Road, Whitchurch and also from wordcatcher.com