Newport Road used to be called Roath Road. Here we look at Newport Road from where it starts, leaving the centre of Cardiff, to where it crosses the Rhymney River.
No.14: Cleves Secretarial College. No.16 Rechabites. The Fitzalan Student Accommodation now covers the site. The Independent Order of Rechabites (IOR), also known as the Sons and Daughters of Rechab, is a fraternal organisation and friendly society founded in England in 1835 as part of the wider temperance movement to promote total abstinence from alcoholic beverages. Cardiff Institute for the Blind is just seen on the left of the photo.
Looking eastwards up Newport Road in the 1960s at St James church and the City Road junction on the left and the Royal infirmary right. The cooling towers at Colchester Avenue power station are visible in the distance.
An early postcard of Newport Road, looking east. On the right is St James the Great church and behind it the Infirmary (before the infirmary chapel was built). On the left is Roath Road Wesleyan church, bombed in WWII and subsequently demolished.
Newport Road, looking down Glossop Road, with the Infirmary on left and the Blind institute on Longcross Street, bombed in WWII, on far right.
Trolley bus exiting City Road onto Newport Road with the Royal Café in the background. That corner is currently occupied by Longcross Court.
Looking eastwards along Newport Road where Four Elms Road branches off to the right. Picture taken around 1890, before the old Roath Library was constructed. The trees on the right are believed to the the four elms after which the road was named. (pic credit: Cardiff Libraries)
Last trolley bus in Cardiff – Newport Road 1970 (photo credit: David Christie on Flickr)
Snow on Newport Road in 1982. Graham Building on right, Roath Library on left. (Picture credit – Peter Ellis)
Roath House on Newport Road which was adjacent to Roath Court. More information on the Holmes family of Roath Court in our:- April 2022 newsletter.
Roath Court lodge at the junction of Albany Road and Newport Road. The lodge was purchased by the council in 1936 and later demolished as part of a road widening scheme.
These fine motors an bikes were lined up outside Roath Court Lodge, on the corner of Newport and Albany Road, probably 1904. The lodge was purchased by the Corporation in 1936 to enable Newport Road to be widened, hence Roath Court (Summers Funeral Home) no longer has a lodge. Behind those walls were where Roath Harriers first met – the athletics team Lynn Davies was a member of when he won his Olympic Gold medal. Read more of the history of Roath Harriers here.
Bomb damage to 218 Newport Road, Roath in March 1941
Tram Terminus on Newport Road, outside the Royal Oak
Newport Road 1892. The bridge (no longer standing) is carrying the Taff Vale Railway over Newport Road.
Billboards on Newport Rod, Cardiff in the 1920s opposite the bus depot.
Pengam Coal Sidings at Newport Road in 1974 viewed from Rover Way Bridge and the area now a shopping area which includes TGIs.
Roath Power Station – the later of the expansion phases. This one was known as the HP (High Pressure) section and was built around the time of WW2 – It may have been started in the late 30s and completed after the war. To the right and out of the camera frame was the LP (Low Pressure) section.
James Howells garage in the late 1950s
Roath Local History Society 