We are straying a bit outside the old parish of Roath here to take a look at some of the history of Richmond Road and West Grove:

Nat West Bank, on the corner of Richmond Road and Crwys Road – closed 2023 (photo credit – Jess Power)

Long queues at Richmond Road Cardiff for smallpox vaccination in 1962.

St Margaret’s School for Girls

This Private School at 45 Richmond Road was started by Margaret Simpson in the 1880s and carried on after her death in 1923 by her daughters until the 1930s.  It was a boarding school for girls but also had a preparatory class for boys. The building at the rear of the house is thought to have been used as a schoolroom. The name St Margaret’s can still just about be made out above the door. It is also thought that buildings may have continued to be used as some type of educational establishment after St Margaret’s School closed in the 1930s.  Her story was told in a newsletter of Friends of Cathays Cemetery Newsletter, March 2013.

26 Richmond Road on the far right.

The Mansion House

The Mansion House, Richmond Road, Cardiff.

The mansion house was originally the home to James Howell, founder of the famous department store in the centre of Cardiff.  It was originally known as Grove House and was built in the mid 1890s.  The house was purchased by  Cardiff Corporation in 1912 and renamed the Mansion House.  The Mansion House website gives some good views of the interior.

The Red Cross Hospital opened in 1914, later renamed the Prince of Wales Hospital in 1918 was on the corner of West Grove and The Walk. The main purpose of the hospital in WWI and WWII was to treat soldiers who had lost limbs. The Hospital evolved to provide other services such as occupational therapy and speech therapy, before eventually being closed in 1998.. More history on the building in this Glamorgan Archives blog.