A selection of photographs of Clifton Street through the ages, in no particular order.

References in newspapers to the Clifton Hotel in Roath go back to the late 1850s making it one of the oldest pubs in the area.  The three story building is on the corner of Clifton Street and Broadway (CF24 1PW).  A poltergeist is said to haunt the cellar.  Given its history it is surprising that there don’t seem to be any readily available historic pictures of the pub.

Tredegar Hotel

The Tredegar Hotel on Clifton Street is named after Lord Tredegar who owned much of the land in the area.  The pub sign depicted the Tredegar House Coat of Arms belonging to the Morgan family.  The first mention of the pub in the newspaper was in 1872 when Thomas Meyrick applied for a licence.  In support of his application he describes having spent £2000 on the hotel that had 24 rooms, 13 of which were bedrooms.  His application was never in much doubt; he was a member of the Cardiff Board of Guardians and the Roath Board of Health and it was supported by the Vicar of Roath and a county magistrate.  In 1885 there is a report of a fight outside the Tredegar Hotel, probably not unusual at the time, except in this case the man charged with assaulting a policeman was wearing a Salvation Army jersey.  When he was sent to prison for 21 days the police constable stated that the member of the Salvation Army had already previously been jailed for fighting.  In 1888 there was tragic news in that the landlord at the time, John Wonnacott, aged 27, was killed when the horse he was riding in Bute Street, slipped in a tramway, throwing off Mr Wonnacott who never regained consciousness.  A 1902 classified ad in the Western Mail read: ‘Wanted: Young man to attend skittle alley and make himself generally useful, references required’.  In 1903 the hotel was up for sale at auction where it was described as bound for beers and stouts to S.A.Brain & Co.  In another newsworthy event, it is reported that the last Cardiff horse drawn tram went from the Tredegar Hotel, Clifton Street to the Dowlais Works, probably in 1903.  Jumping ahead to more modern times, in 1983 licence Russell Tandy and two friends walked 11 miles from the Tredegar Hotel to the Garth Hotel, Rhiwderin, Newport in aid of the South Wales Echo Epilepsy Appeal Fund. The Tredegar Hotel ladies skittles team, including landlady Denise Williams, visited 17 pubs in the area in just three hours wearing fancy dress and raised £728 for the Hillsborough Disaster Fund in 1989.  The Tredegar finally closed in 2006 and is currently on the market with planning permission granted for its conversion into flats.