CardiffWalesMap

Thought forumites might enjoy this, so sharing

http://www.archiuk.com/cgi-bin/build_nl ... rTMwEl5hLU

Thanks. This site is even better.


https://places.library.wales/

This one is similar, but overlays the old map onto satellite view instead:

I've built up a fair library of old photos of Cardiff.

We've lost far too many beautiful buildings over the years! Especially on Customhouse St, Westgate St and around the old Taff Vales Railway Station (now Queen's St).

I would love to know if anyone has any original photos of Cardiff General Station before the 1920s. The building is not the original one built for the South Wales Railway, but I can't find any photographs of what was originally there.

Peiriannydd wrote:I would love to know if anyone has any original photos of Cardiff General Station before the 1920s. The building is not the original one built for the South Wales Railway, but I can't find any photographs of what was originally there.

It's a huge mystery! I've searched for pictures of the original station as well and not just online - so far with zero success.

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.

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!

wasn't queen st station much bigger back then? There are some images online http://www.urban75.org/blog/cardiff-que ... nt-scheme/

Queen Street was very large as it housed the HQ offices of the Taff Vale Railway. It also had the sort of shed style roof that Peirianydd referred to.







The Rhymney Railway also had a seperate station ajacent to it known as Cardiff, Crockherbtown. Quite a few fine vitorian buildings use to stand opposite the station, noteably the Cory Hall and the YMCA. They were cleared to make way for the abysmal Capitol Centre.

These are the Taff Vale Railway offices that used to be on the corner.

Given that Cardiff docks were mainly about shipping coal, we didn't develop the level of bonded warehouses of other port cities. But we did have a lot of semi-industrial buildings that were similar.

The CWS on Bute Terrace was one of my favourites now gone. It's funny that the developments on Dumballs road are effectively trying to recapture this vibe.