Remembering the days of Cardiff’s illegal backstreet drinking houses

BETWEEN the years 1850 and 1875, some 92 licensed premises could be found in central Cardiff.

There were also illegal drinking houses which were known as “shebeens”.

These backstreet drinking dens, in which ale was served in the front room of little terraced houses, accounted for a large proportion of the beer that was sold in the town.

Licences to sell beer were hard to come by and these beer-shop owners were often prosecuted for “holding a shebeen”.

In those days Charlotte Street, which branched off from Bute Street and led to St Mary Street, was known as “The Street of Taverns”. It had in all 12 inns: the Ship, the Six Bells, Britannia, Caledonian, Irishman’s Glory, King’s Head, Duke of Gloucester, Farmer’s Arms, Excavator’s Arms, Seven Stars, Red Lion and Dinas Arms.

And just for good measure (pardon the pun) there was also a beer and porter stores.

The Canal Bank at the rear of Charlotte Street housed the Tunnel Tavern, Dunraven Castle, and Hills Arms Tavern while in nearby Caroline Street could be found the Cambrian Arms, Neptune, Bristol Arms, Loyal Windsor and Victoria.

The Franklyn, Scandinavian, Inkerman, Wexford & Kinsale, Plume of Feathers, Elephant and Castle and several others could be found in Bute Terrace.

In Caroline Street there was a pub which was kept by a Mrs Hole.

As an open invitation to enter her pub there was a notice in the window which read: “In this hive we are all alive. Good liquor makes us funny, so if you are dry, step inside And try the flavour of our honey.”

One of the most popular public houses in the centre of Cardiff was the old Rose and Crown and, despite a campaign to get it listed by the Welsh Office, along with the old cobbled courtyard at the rear of the building, it was demolished in 1974.

The Rose and Crown had its Kingsway (North Street) location on the east side of the North Gate of the town as early as 1787.

Another of the oldest inn sites in