Cathays Park

Cathays Park or Cardiff Civic Centre[1] (Welsh: Parc Cathays) is a civic centre area in the city centre of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, consisting of a number of early 20th century buildings and a central park area, Alexandra Gardens. It includes Edwardian buildings such as the Temple of Peace, City Hall, the National Museum and Gallery of Wales and several buildings belonging to the Cardiff University campus. It also includes Cardiff Crown Court, the administrative headquarters of the Welsh Government, and the more modern Cardiff Central police station. The Pevsner architectural guide to the historic county of Glamorgan judges Cathays Park to be "the finest civic centre in the British Isles".[2] The area falls within the Cathays electoral ward.

Cathays Park
Cardiff City Hall
Cardiff Crown Court
Glamorgan Building
National Museum Cardiff
Grade I listed buildings in Cathays Park
TypeCivic centre
LocationCardiff, Wales
Coordinates51.4866°N 3.1804°W / 51.4866; -3.1804
CreatedEarly 20th century buildings

History

Cathays Park was formerly part of Cardiff Castle grounds. The present day character of the area owes much to successive holders of the title the Marquess of Bute, and especially the 3rd Marquess of Bute, an extremely successful and wealthy businessman. They acquired much of the lands in Cathays through investment and by inheritance through a marriage to Charlotte Windsor in 1766.

The idea of acquiring the Cathays House park as an open public space was raised in 1858 and again in 1875. In 1887 it was suggested the park could commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. Negotiations didn't begin until 1892, when Lord Bute agreed to sell 38 acres for £120,000.[3] The idea of relocating the Town Hall to the park was controversial, but it was also proposed to locate a new University College building there.

On 14 December 1898, the local council bought the entire 59 acres (24 ha) of land for £161,000 from the Marquess of Bute.[3] As part of the sale, the 3rd Marquis of Bute placed strict conditions on how the land was to be developed. The area was to be used for civic, cultural and educational purposes, and the avenues were to be preserved.

Aerial view of Cathays Park

A six-month Cardiff Fine Arts, Industrial and Maritime Exhibition which included specially constructed boating lake, a wooden cycling track and an electric railway was held in 1896.[4]

In 1897 a competition was held for a complex comprising Law Courts and a Town Hall, with Alfred Waterhouse, architect of the Natural History Museum in London, as judge. The winners were the firm of Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards, who would later go on to design the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. These were the first two buildings of the ensemble, and have an almost uniform façade treatment. The east and west pavilions of both façades are identical in design, except for the attic storeys, which are decorated with allegorical sculptural groups. On the Crown Court these are Science and Industry, sculpted by Donald McGill, and Commerce and Industry, by Paul Raphael Montford, while on the City Hall are Music and Poetry by Paul Montford and Unity and Patriotism by Henry Poole.

The third site in this complex went empty until 1910, when the competition for a National Museum of Wales was won by the architects Smith and Brewer. The design parts from the Edwardian Baroque of the Law Courts and City Hall and is more akin to American Beaux-Arts architecture, particularly in the entrance hall where a similarity to McKim, Mead and White's later Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has been noted. The Museum site was not bounded to the north by an avenue so there were scarcely any limits on the depth of the building; the 1910 plan was almost twice as deep as it was broad. The First World War, however, ensured that progress on the building was very slow. By 1927 part of the East range, with the lecture theatre funded by William Reardon Smith, was complete. Further extensions came only in the 1960s and '90s; these remained faithful to the original design on the exterior (and included sculpture by Dhruva Mistry) but are of a neutral character on the inside.

Due to presence of the then Welsh Office building, by the 1990s 'Cathays Park' became used by some as a metonym for that Government Department,[5][6][7][8] and after devolution in 1999, for the Welsh Government's civil servants and ministerial offices.[9][10]

Buildings
Grade II and II* listed buildings in Cathays Park
Bute Building
University of Wales, Registry
Temple of Peace
Cardiff University
main building
Crown Building
Welsh National War Memorial
Buildings and structures Listed building status
Biosciences and Tower Building No listing
Bute Building Grade II
Cardiff Central Police Station No listing
Cardiff Crown Court Grade I
Cardiff Law School No listing
Cardiff University Grade II*
City Hall Grade I
Crown Building of the Welsh Government Grade II
Glamorgan Building (former Glamorgan County Council building) Grade I
Hut in Gorsedd Gardens Grade II
National Museum and Gallery of Wales Grade I
Public conveniences on Museum Avenue Grade II
Redwood Building (Welsh School of Pharmacy) No listing
Temple of Peace Grade II
University of Wales, Registry Grade II
Welsh National War Memorial Grade II*

Gardens
A panoramic view of the lawn and fountain in front of Cardiff City Hall (left) and the National Museum Cardiff (right). The lawn makes up the southern end of Cathays Park, alongside Gorsedd Gardens (far right) and Friary Gardens.

Cathays Park is home to three formal gardens, and a large lawn located in front of Cardiff City Hall. All of the spaces are within conservation areas and many of the surrounding buildings are listed. The open spaces are very important to the image of the city. Several important buildings overlook these well kept spaces. Each of the three gardens has its own very different character and each retains its original layout. Given their location, large numbers of people visit and pass through and they are popular venues for lunchtime breaks.

Alexandra Gardens
Alexandra Gardens, showing the Welsh National War Memorial in the centre.

Named after Alexandra of Denmark, the queen consort of Edward VII, Alexandra Gardens is located at the heart of the civic centre. The gardens were designed as a rectangular landscaped garden comprising 2.5 hectares of formal lawns with island flower beds and trees. Located between Edward VII Avenue and Museum Avenue surrounded by some of the grandest buildings of the civic centre, the gardens was one of the earliest parts of Cathays Park to be developed. Originally known as Geometrical Gardens and University Gardens, the current name was adopted on 26 July 1910.[11]

Alexandra Gardens is home to a number of memorials and statues including the Welsh National War Memorial, which stands in the centre of the garden. The memorial is the centrepiece of the garden, positioned where originally there was to be a fountain. Designed by Sir Ninian Comper, the memorial was unveiled by on 12 June 1928 by the Prince of Wales.[11] Later memorials have been placed in Alexandra Gardens, including those dedicated to the Spanish Civil War and the Falklands campaign.

Gorsedd Gardens
Gorsedd Gardens showing the Gorsedd Stones.

Situated in front of the National Museum, this garden has as its centrepiece a stone circle constructed in 1899, when the National Eisteddfod of Wales was held in Cardiff. The garden's name refers to the Gorsedd of Welsh Bards, the ceremonial order that governs the Eisteddfod. The landscaped garden has statues of subjects including David Lloyd George and Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart. At the south end of the garden is a statue of the coal owner and philanthropist John Cory, by Goscombe John, placed there in 1906, and to the west is the equestrian statue of Godfrey Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar, also by Goscombe John, erected in 1909. A German howitzer gun captured during the First World War was placed alongside the Lord Tredegar statue, but it was removed in 1925.[12]

Overlooking Gorsedd Gardens, though not strictly part of the Cathays Park complex, is Park House (or McConnochie House), an influential work by the Neo-Gothic architect William Burges.

Friary Gardens.

Friary Gardens

A triangular ornamental garden between the modern day Boulevard de Nantes and North Road, divided by the Dock Feeder Canal, Friary Gardens was constructed in honour of the 3rd Marquess of Bute. In the autumn of 1904 the space was enclosed with a low wall and iron fence. The space was laid out as a formal garden the following winter, although not opened to the public until 1910 as Priory Gardens, before adopting its current name in 1928.[13]

The current garden contains topiary, and clipped hedges around the perimeter. A statue of the 3rd Marquess of Bute sculpted by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray standing upon a stone pedestal blazoned with a coat of arms, was placed in the garden in 1929.[13]

Statues

Cathays Park is home to a large number of statues and sculptures, of which eight have been awarded listed status due to their historic significance. These are listed in the table below.

Statue Listed structure status Image and location
John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute Grade II
Third Marquess of Bute, Friary Gardens
John Cory Grade II
John Cory, in Gorsedd Gardens.
Lord Aberdare Grade II
Lord Aberdare, in Alexandra Gardens.
Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart Grade II
Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, in Gorsedd Gardens.
David Lloyd George Grade II
David Lloyd-George, in Goredd Gardens.
Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar Grade II
Viscount Tredegar, on the lawn in front of Cardiff City Hall
Judge Gwilym Willams of Miskin Grade II
Gwilym Williams, outside Cardiff Crown Court
South African War Memorial (also known as the Boer War Memorial) Grade II*
South African War Memorial, outside Cardiff City Hall on King Edward VII Avenue

Memorial stones
Memorial stones in Cathays Park
Raoul Wallenberg memorial
Falklands War memorial
Spanish Civil War memorial
Memorial dedicated to organ donors

Cathays Park also has memorials stones dedicated to:

  • Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who, towards the end of WWII saved the lives of up to 100,000 Jews by issuing them with Swedish passports enabling them to flee to safety who would have gone to the Nazi extermination camps. This stone was unveiled on 24 November 1985.
  • The servicemen of Cardiff who served in the Falklands War.
  • Those who fought in the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, which was unveiled in October 1992. The inscription reads "Dedicated to the Welsh volunteers for liberty who defended democracy in the Spanish Civil War".
  • The charity Kidney Wales Foundation, gifted a memorial, called The Gift of Life Stone, to those who donated their organs and tissues to save others. It is located in Alexandra Gardens and stands 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) tall. It was unveiled on 26 October 2007.[14]
  • Fountains and lawns outside Cardiff City Hall with the National Museum Cardiff in the background.
  • Cardiff City Hall during the build up to the 2012 Olympic Games.
  • Cardiff Big Weekend on the lawn in front of Cardiff City Hall, 2009.
  • Main entrance of Cardiff Crown Court, as seen from King Edward VII Avenue.
  • Panoramic view of the civic centre looking north along Museum Avenue showing Cardiff City Hall (right) and National Museum Cardiff (left).
  • Cardiff University Main Building, as seen from the west entrance to Alexandra Gardens with Museum Avenue in the foreground.
  • Buildings of the Welsh Government Administrative Headquarters viewed from Alexandra Gardens.
  • Alexandra Gardens, showing the Crown Building of the Welsh Government.
  • Alexandra Gardens, showing the Welsh National War Memorial in the centre.
  • Welsh National War Memorial, Alexandra Gardens.
  • Gorsedd Gardens.
  • Sculpture titled Girl, by Robert Thomas. Installed in Gorsedd Gardens in 2005.
  • Cathays Park viewed from the Keep of Cardiff Castle. The clock tower of Cardiff City Hall can be clearly seen in the centre of the image, with the two large stone turrets of the Cardiff Crown Court building just before. The dome of the National Museum Cardiff visible to the right of the clock tower.
  • Bute Building (Cardiff University) which houses the Welsh School of Architecture.

References
  1. http://www.bigcardiff.co.uk/cardiff-visitor-guide.php?venue_id=272
  2. Newman, John (1995). Glamorgan. The Buildings of Wales. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-071056-4. p. 220
  3. Prof. William Rees (1969), "The Reformed Borough, 1836–1914", Cardiff – A History of the City, The Corporation of the City of Cardiff, pp. 336–337
  4. "Cardiff Remembered: When tigers, lions and crocodiles patrolled the city at 1896 exhibition – Wales Online". Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  5. "Rural Communities in Wales (Hansard, 4 June 1985)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  6. "WALES (Hansard, 22 April 1969)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  7. "Clause 1.—(HIGHER RATES OF NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE CONTRIBUTIONS AND SUPPLEMENTARY PROVISIONS RELATING THERETO.) (Hansard, 23 February 1961)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  8. "Public Accounts (Hansard, 28 October 1992)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  9. Powys, Betsan (24 May 2011). "The art of delivering delivery". Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  10. Andrews, Leighton. "Governing Wales – hidden wiring and emerging cultural practice" (PDF). Governing Wales.
  11. "Cathays Park - Alexandra Gardens". www.cardiffparks.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  12. "Cathays Park - Gorsedd Gardens". www.cardiffparks.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  13. "Cathays Park - Friary Gardens". www.cardiffparks.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  14. "Gift of Life Stone". Kidney Wales Foundation. Retrieved 17 July 2017.

Further reading

Media related to Cathays Park at Wikimedia Commons

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