It is hard to believe it now given its status as a thriving capital city that plays host to some of the highest-profile sporting and showbusiness events in the world. But prior to the 19th century, before the coal industry boom, Cardiff was a modest country town with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants despite its roots tracing back to Roman times.
Its streets were neither lit nor paved and pigs freely roamed what was essentially a rural landscape. In fact the areas beyond Queen Street to the north and east, St Mary Street to the south, and the castle and river to the west were largely open countryside.
Even The Hayes, located in the heart of the city, was a site of gardens and enclosures (the name is derived from ‘haie’, the Norman-French term for ‘hedge’).
READ MORE: The little girl found dead with pieces of paper in her stomach
READ MORE: Inside the sprawling network of caves hidden beneath Cardiff
If you think that’s difficult to imagine it’s nothing compared to the rest of the city’s history. From Roman Villas to Iron Age Forts, the capital is dotted with significant historical sites that have endured into the present day. Here are some of the most surprising sites and facts from Cardiff’s past. For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter.
Hanging at Cardiff Market
Historian and author John Davies has said the Merthyr Rising was the most “ferocious and bloody event in the history of industrial Britain”. In 1831 coal miners and employees of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, owned by William Crawshay, demonstrated against wage cuts and high unemployment.
Following the uprising authorities made 26 arrests, which led to multiple prison sentences and transportation to Australia as well as two executions by hanging. Initially condemned to hang, Lewsyn yr Heliwr was instead imprisoned for life. However 23-year-old miner Dic Penderyn, also known as Richard Lewis, was executed in Cardiff Market on August 13, 1831.
A Roman villa on Ely playing fields
What now appears as a slightly overgrown patch of grass was once the site of a Roman villa in the second century. The site is located in Trelai Park in Ely.
The villa was extensively excavated in 1922 by Sir Mortimer Wheeler who at the time was the director of the National Museum of Wales. Wheeler discovered that the initial construction occurred in the first half of the second century and that after various alterations to the layout the villa was abandoned around 325 AD.
During the excavation evidence of iron working was uncovered along with a human skeleton positioned east-west, potentially indicating a Christian burial. Among the small artefacts unearthed were coins, horseshoes, a lead strainer, bronze and bone pins, large amounts of iron slag, bone counters, Samian ware, and pottery. Today no traces of the villa remain but the site on which it stood is preserved as an unmown area in the park.
Mooring point for a World War Two barrage balloon
There is a concrete block near Fitzalan High School which might seem insignificant at first glance. Situated in the middle of an overgrown roundabout this cube of concrete likely played a crucial role in safeguarding the city during World War Two.
It’s believed that the concrete block served as a mooring point for a barrage balloon. It was one of several balloons deployed to protect Cardiff from enemy aircraft during the conflict.
The punishing Taff hanging chair
A permanent feature over the River Taff was the so-called “cucking stool” where a chair extended out over the water from a long wooden beam. This device served as a tool for punishing “disorderly women” and “scolds” and was intended to publicly humiliate those subjected to it. Knowing this history one’s perception of Westgate Street, where the river originally flowed, might change forever.
South Wales’ largest Iron Age hill fort
Ruins of St Mary’s Church
(Image: Jean Evans)
Motorists travelling on the A4232 from the Cardiff City Stadium as it winds past Ely may be unaware that just beyond the trees lies South Wales’ largest hill fort. Hidden beneath the remains of St Mary’s Church (abandoned since the 1960s) the site was unearthed in 2012 by Channel 4’s Time Team. During a three-day excavation presenter Tony Robinson described discovering a “whole spaghetti bolognese” of ditches, circles, roundhouses, and enclosures. He revealed that a 3,000-year-old “saddlequern” tool and fragments of an Iron Age pot were uncovered, which were subsequently reassembled.
Cardiff’s lesser-known castle
Few are aware of Cardiff’s second castle, known as Morgraig Castle, which dates back more than 600 years. Rediscovered in the early 20th century the castle lies near the Traveller’s Rest pub on the route to Caerphilly Mountain.
Its origins are attributed to the 13th century although there’s debate over whether Gilbert de Clare or the Lord of Senghennydd was the builder. Interestingly the castle seems to have been uninhabited and unfinished. It’s now a scheduled and Grade II-listed building.
The truth behind ‘Death Junction’
Traffic lights at the notorious ‘Death Junction’ in Roath, Cardiff
(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
The infamous junction where Albany Road, City Road, Crwys Road, Richmond Road, and Mackintosh Place converge is known as Death Junction. However the grim name is not for the reason most assume.
Its name originates from a sombre event in 1679 when two Catholic priests, Philip Evans and John Lloyd, were brutally hung, drawn, and quartered for “executing their priesthood”, which was an act deemed treasonous at the time. Allegedly several men were subjected to beatings and whippings for refusing to testify against two priests.
A memorial plaque marks the spot
(Image: Therese Wynn-davies / Creative Commons)
Presently Richmond Road cuts through the heart of what used to be fields where those executed at the junction were laid to rest.
Mysterious bullet holes
They are thought to date back decades
The holes visible on a bridge in Lansdowne Road railway bridge are thought to be the aftermath of strafing by a low-flying aircraft during World War Two. These marks can still be clearly seen today.
Cardiff used to have a zoo
Now one of the most popular parks in the city, Victoria Park was once home to Cardiff’s zoo and full of exotic animals. Over the years the collection grew to include Wally the Kangaroo, peacocks, gazelles, parrots, raccoons, and a three-foot-long alligator.
The battle of St Fagans
Today there’s no marker to indicate the spot where hundreds of men lost their lives in what is now just a tranquil field on the city’s outskirts. The Battle of St Fagans marked the final major conflict of the protracted English Civil War, a clash between parliamentarians and forces loyal to the king.
The battle witnessed around 11,000 men engaged in savage hand-to-hand combat. Hundreds perished and legend has it that the River Ely turned red with their blood. Interestingly many of those who fought and died had been allies just months prior.
On May 8, 1648, they converged at this location situated between what is now St Fagans Museum and the A4232 link road. By the end of the battle between 300 and 700 people had lost their lives.
Discovery of mass graves
In 1967 when Cardiff’s first skyscraper, Capital Tower (then known as Pearl Assurance House), was being constructed builders arrived on site donned in white contagion suits and equipped with oxygen. As Peter Finch elaborates in his book Real Cardiff: The Flourishing City “the JCBs had uncovered mass grave pits from the time of Black Death”.
He added: “The plague could still be there, waiting its chance, still alive in the ancient bones. But there was nothing to fear. Cardiff’s damp had seen the evil off.”
One of the most gruesome finds during this excavation was a lead casket containing a heart which lay upon the skeleton of a middle-aged woman. At the time the skeleton was believed to be that of Princess Joan, daughter of Edward I, who died in 1307. The heart buried with her may have been taken from the body of her son who was killed in 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn.
Capital Tower was erected on the grounds of a former medieval friary which, post-reformation, was converted into a mansion. By 1730 the mansion was deserted although the ruins remained visible until the 1960s.
A token from afar
Trees of Whitchurch Common
Strolling past Whitchurch Common you’ll notice a row of trees along Merthyr Road. During World War Two the 2nd Evacuation Unit of the US Army took up residence on the Common.
Post-war an avenue of trees was planted there using funds donated by the Americans. Other remnants of the war era include an air raid warden’s post, an air raid shelter, and a static water tank for fire protection.
Cardiff’s very own bullring
The Aneurin Bevan statue at the top of Queen Street is a widely-recognised landmark and meeting point. But in the 18th century this area was the city’s bull ring. In 1773 a spectator tragically lost his life after being gored while watching bull baiting in this very location.
Blood sports were commonplace during this period with Cardiff hosting a cock pit where birds, armed with spurs, would fight to the death amidst a circle of onlookers. Equally shocking and brutal was the presence of a bull ring at the junction of St John Street and Duke Street (the crossing between the castle and Queen Street).
Here mastiffs would attack a bull tied to a post. Early 18th-century records show the town council voting to cover the costs of this so-called sport, indicating it had official approval. Bull-baiting was not banned until 1835.
Ivor Novello’s birthplace
Ivor Novello’s house in Cowbridge Road East
(Image: Mirrorpix)
In busy Cowbridge Road East you may spot a house sporting a faded blue plaque. It marks the house where the legendary Welsh composer Ivor Novello was born. Famous as both a composer and actor he wrote the First World War song Keep the Home Fires Burning among many other works.
St Mary Street was a site of public executions
St Mary Street
(Image: A general view of a busy St. Mary’s Street in Cardiff city centre)
While St Mary Street continues to witness its share of drunken incidents and violence it was a far more savage place in previous generations. In 18th-century Cardiff even a minor theft could result in severe punishment as evidenced by Ann Harris’ public whipping through the streets with her back bare. In contrast in 1555 devout protestant Rawlins White met a gruesome end being burned at the stake near the market or possibly in St John Street adjacent to the church.
Entire neighbourhoods have disappeared
Cardiff has several lost suburbs, which you can read more about here. But all traces of the largest two have been completely wiped out. Temperance Town was a working-class suburb built in the 1860s on the land that used to be the festering sore left when the river was diverted and demolished in the 1930s to make way for Cardiff Bus Station.
It was centred around Wood Street, which is named after Colonel Wood who sold the land on which it is built. Wood was a staunch teetotaller who made it a condition that no inns or public houses were to be built there. By the 1930s it was impoverished and overcrowded. The last two people to leave Temperance Town were Mr and Mrs Henry Arthur Hannam who lived at 32 Eisteddfod Street.
Former popular department store
Marments in the 1920s
(Image: Western Mail)
If you walk down Queen Street and head towards Poundland you will see that on either side of the building there is an ornate letter M. This stands for Marments, which was a popular department store that previously called this building home. Back in March 1986 the South Wales Echo revealed that Cardiff’s oldest department store had been sold and would close in September. Then-chairman and managing director Arthur Marment told the Echo: “I feel very bad about it but I know it was the only right thing to do. It would be a mighty folly to carry on.”
The remnants of Cardiff’s city centre slums can still be seen today
Inside Jones Court in Cardiff
(Image: Steve Chapple)
You may be familiar with Womanby Street as a popular spot for a night out. However it is also home to one of the last visible examples of “housing courts” – essentially 19th-century slums. Jones Court, located in Womanby Street, was a dwelling place for the influx of migrant workers arriving in Cardiff during that time.
The Marquess of Bute constructed these accommodations in the 1830s for his dockworkers. However they were far from luxurious consisting of only two rooms with no access to running water or proper drainage and poor ventilation. This made them hotbeds for diseases such as cholera and typhus.
The 1849 cholera outbreak proved devastating for Cardiff, claiming 396 lives. This prompted a thorough investigation into public health, which uncovered a dire reality.
The findings included 54 people crammed into four rooms and 500 individuals residing in 27 houses with only four toilets to share and no water supply. In the 1840s a staggering quarter of Cardiff’s children died before reaching their first birthday.
Town walls
The largest remaining section of Cardiff’s medieval wall
(Image: Seth Whales)
Near the old HopBunker bar, formerly the well-known club Barfly, in Queen Street you will see an innocuous-looking road to the right. Walk round there and you will see an old-looking random piece of brick wall with the outline of a stone plaque on it.
Although it doesn’t look like much it is actually an interesting piece of Cardiff’s history. Back in the day Cardiff’s town walls enclosed much of the present-day city centre. It measured more than 2km in length and in places reached 3m high. Alas there is little left today. This piece of wall is the largest remaining part of that wall today.
Cathays Park used to be a source of mud for building
The land where the civic centre (the prestigious part of town where the museum, City Hall, university, and crown court are situated) wasn’t even part of the city at all for centuries. Cardiff ended at Queen Street and was open country beyond that, where ploughing matches took place, until about 1860. But this area was known in the 15th century as the Dawbyng Pittes, where the townsfolk dug the clay for daubing on their wattled houses.
Cardiff’s busiest streets conceal hidden burial sites
The marker numbers on the pathway between St John’s church, Cardiff and the public garden, represent graves that were previously there
(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
Adjacent to St John’s Church several metal numbers are embedded in the alleyway’s paving stones. These numbers correspond to underground burial vaults. The pathway, stretching from the rear entrance of Cardiff Market to Working Street, was constructed right through a church graveyard earning it the moniker ‘Dead Man’s Alley’. This was done to facilitate easy access to the market.
It remains unclear whether the bodies were left undisturbed or relocated to another section of the churchyard. However when the path was established brass numbers marked the positions of the vaults.
Cardiff’s Roman walls
The Romans set foot in what is now southeast Wales shortly after their invasion in 43 AD. By approximately 51 AD the local tribe, known as the Silures, who had fiercely resisted, were defeated. The Roman fort at Cardiff was strategically located for easy sea access and four forts were erected on the site over time. A fort built in the fourth century featured stone walls, parts of which can still be seen today as part of the Cardiff Castle wall.
The Mahogany Room at Burger King
The hidden mahogany room in Burger King in Duke Street
(Image: South Wales Echo)
Burger King, on the corner where Castle Street and Queen Street meet, may seem like an unlikely place to discover Cardiff’s lost history. However if you go upstairs, through a couple of doors, and into an area marked “No entry” you will find a room far removed from the fast food décor below. Known as the Mahogany Room it features deep mahogany panels, intricate mosaics, and stained-glass windows and explains why it’s a Grade II-listed building.
The Mahogany Bar, as it was known back in the day, was inaugurated in 1905 by the wine importing firm Fulton Dunlop Company Limited. However, records indicate that an inn or tavern had been on that spot since at least 1720. When it first began welcoming patrons in 1905 the cost of beer sat at one penny per pint while a half-pint of whiskey demanded a price of 1s 3d. The initial clientele of Green Dragon, followed by the Mahogany Room, were composed of shipowners, stockbrokers, and members of the Cardiff borough.
The city’s hidden tunnels
Cardiff is riddled with hidden tunnels. A medieval tunnel, constructed by monks, runs beneath the city centre and Bute Park. Another tunnel, built in the late 1970s by the then British Post Office to house cables, stretches from the BT building in Park Street to Cardiff Castle.
A tunnel discovered in the basement of the Angel Hotel in Castle Street is believed to lead to Cardiff Castle and could date back to the 13th century. Additional tunnels are located under St David’s Centre, the Ely River, and Culverhouse Cross.