Ash wrote:My guess is that as when the station opened in 1850 Cardiff was still a smallish town with a population of around 25,000, it may well have been a very small 'country station' type building.
The fact that the then Cardiff General was one of very few stations to be rebuilt between the wars would seem to bear that out.
I've sometimes thought that too. Much of Temple Meads is actually the "Joint Railway Station", which was built between the wars and acted as a combined station for the Great Western and the Bristol and Exeter Railway. Its relative scale to Cardiff does indicate the population difference (and perhaps importance) of Bristol. I've always lamanted that Cardiff doesn't have a similar 'shed' style railway station that were common in the nineteenth century.
But it's odd that Brunel went through the trouble of re-directing the Taff to build the station and yet failed to build anything of note. I'm curious to know if it was similar to Reading and perhaps built out of timber. Perhaps it was like the former Swansea Victoria station.
If you ever turn anything up, please post it!