Cardiff Story

Hello all,

I've been in touch with Cardiff Story, Cardiff's new City Museum, regarding a space for Delaines exhibition. The Museum is housed in what used to be the old Free Library in the centre of town, and opened in April of last year. Thier collection is small but they are very keen to work with all aspects of Cardiff life and history. I will be posting photographs of the space on the blog shorty so keep your eyes peeled.

In the meantime here is a link to the Museums website for you to look at and some snippets of information about the building.

http://cardiffmuseum.com/content.asp?nav=112&parent_directory_id=2

Speak soon


Cardiff Story Museum: A Very Brief History

A competition was held to choose a design for the Cardiff Free Library, Museum and School for Science and Art. The winning design was by architects James, Seward and Thomas. It was built between 1880 - 82

Mayor Alfred Thomas opened the building on 31 May. The day was declared a public holiday.

Schools of Science and Art were housed here until 1890 when they moved to buildings belonging to the University College

As cardiff's population grew the building soon became too small to house the 3500 visitors it was receiving each day. An extension was built between 1893 and 1896 at a cost of £15,000

On June the Prince and Princess of Wales arrived in Cardiff to visit the Cardiff Exhibition in Cathays Park and open the Library

The Museum and Art Gallery remained on the top floor until the collection moved to National Museum Wales, which was founded in 1907

In 1935 the library was condemned by its then chief, Harry Farr, as no longer fit for use as a modern public library

In 2004 Visitor Information Centre moved in. Cardiff Museum Project moved in and began an exhibition programme

In 2011 the Cardiff Story Museum opened.

Butetown History and Arts Centre

I popped into Butetown History and Arts Center while I was there and met with Sian who is the administration officer. She informed me that Glenn has been very busy of late which is why I haven't been able to get hold of him. The spaces that we had a look around in November have pretty much been completed, the only space still to be completed is the cafe. I couldn't look upstairs as they had been booked for a meeting.
here are a few snaps of the spaces that they are currently using.

the main space just off the main entrance hall 

the space through the sliding glass doors as shown in the previous image, through the doors ahead will be the cafe 

other end of the space.

The space through the door on the left of the previous image.

looking in to the main space again

Main Space

main space with doorway to smaller room at the front of the building

The smallest space at the front of the building

Old Natwest Bank

Good Morning, I went to visit a few places last week and had a great conversation with Emma Price about a couple of other options, which I will be looking in to week.

For now though, here are a few images from the inside of the old Natwest bank, I believe Isaac's office is on the second floor of the same building.

in the centre of the room is this fantastic glass ceiling. 

looking over the bank counters, new flooring is being laid

This is taken from the otherside of the Bank counters. all the drawers still remain

The ceilings are beautiful and still have the original chandeliers 

looking towards the entrance of the room

The building has been used for filming by the BBC, they will be paying for new flooring, which the gentleman informs me will be a posh lino. They're still in the process of cleaning and removing any rubbish. 

Down stairs there's the banks vaults, apparently they're haunted but the gentleman I met there wouldn't tell me who they were haunted by!

Unfortunately my flash wouldn't work, but this is a shot from inside the very large safe door

And another

Entrance of the old Natwest Building on Bute Street

The gentleman that I met there, John Munton, is the care taker, and is keen for the building to be used, he was clearly very proud of it. He was in a bit of a rush as he was going to be showing someone else around, so I didn't get much time to ask him very many questions, but I have his number if anyone needed to contact him.

Old Natwest Building

Old Natwest Building on Bute Street.

Train Station

Old Butetown Train Station Building.

Old Butetown Train Station, Bute Street to the left, Lloyd George Avenue to the right.

Merchant House

Merchant House, Cardiff 

Merchant House (now called Merchant Place) opposite a new housing block. 

Merchant House 

Merchant House with view towards Wales Millennium Centre.

Map taken form Google showing location of Merchant Place and Cory Buildings (now all part of Merchant Place development)

Bute Street Maps

Butetown Map 1920.
Bute Street in the centre, showing Sophia Street and others leading off it.
Note Loudoun Place, which as recently undergone major redevelopment.

Showing the length of Bute Street. Housing to the left, Bute Street running alongside the railway and the dock and warehouses to the right of the railway lines. 

Warehouses and West Bute Dock.
The warehouses are where Lloyd George Avenue is today, these included wire rope work, wood storage and corn mills.