Roath Park roads

Alder Road. 

The Alder tree likes growing in boggy ground which fits as Road Park land once used to be just that till reclaimed to make the park. The K6 telephone box is Grade II listed and now a book exchange. Shared my visit with the staff from Holby City.

Top left: ~1900, looking across the recreation ground from Alder Road to Ty Draw Road, where only some of the houses on the road have been completed.

Alfred Street

Named after Alfred Donald Mackintosh (1851-1938), the man with the giant sporran, known to his friends as Alfie, but to others as the Mackintosh of Mackintosh, 28th Chief of the Mackintosh Clan. He was the owner of the land on which the street is built.  Some lovely brick-bay windows and tiled porches in this street.

Angus Street

Dates from 1891. Suffered bomb damage in WWII blitz. Named after Angus Alexander Mackintosh, heir to the Mackintosh estate who was born at Moy Hall in Scotland, grew up in Cottrell Hall, St Nicholas, Glamorgan. A military man, injured in WWI at Ypres, Belgium in 1914. He was evacuated to the military hospital at Boulogne, where he was treated before being sent to hospital in England in mid-November. After spending six months in hospital recuperating and being promoted to Captain he was appointed as the aide-de-camp to Prince Arthur, the Governor General of Canada in Oct 1915.  A year later the Governor General of Canada was replaced by Victor Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire but Angus Mackintosh stayed in his role as aide-de-camp. The Duke of Devonshire was accompanied to Canada by his family and Angus Mackintosh and the Duke’s daughter, Maud Cavendish, fell in love and were married at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa in  Nov 1917. They moved to Washington DC where Angus was appointed Honorary Assistant Military Attaché in the British War Mission. A few weeks after the birth of their daughter Anne Peace Arabella Mackintosh, Angus caught the Spanish flu and died of pneumonia on 13 Oct 1918 aged 33. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, USA.

Arabella Street

Dates from 1884.  Named after Lady Harriet Diana Arabella Mary Mackintosh née Richards (1857-1941) of Plasnewydd (later called the Mackintosh Institute). The Arabella name still runs in the family even today. The anti-hunting mural at the southern end of the street is ironic or intentional given the Mackintosh’s love of hunting.

Top Rt: Mr Sperrin’s milk cart in 1961 Horse Bess though he usually took horse called Queenie with him (photo credit – Chris Warren), Bottom left: Lady Harriet Diana Arabella Mary Mackintosh née Richards.

Bangor Street

Dates from 1891.  Built on land that was once part of Penywain Farm and owned by the Marquess of Bute.  Can’t find a reason behind the street name yet or whether the name refers to Bangor, North Wales or Bangor, Northern Ireland or somewhere else.  Roath Park Wesleyan Methodist Church was built in 1898 replacing a former iron church on the site.  The congregation moved out in 1990.  The street is known for good community spirit and street parties.

Top right – Bangor Street around 1910. Bottom left: VE Day street party – 1945, Bottom right: Pippins Fruit & Veg stall.

Boverton Street

Built in 1899 on land owned by the Marquess of Bute.  The name probably comes from Boverton near Llantwit Major, where the castle/house was founded by Robert Fitzhamon who also owned Cardiff Castle where the Marquess of Bute lived.  

Braeval Street

The street dates from 1895. It looks to be named after Braevall, a farmhouse near Nairn, Inverness-shire owned by Mackintosh of Moy Hall (who owned the land on which Braeval Street was built).  Braeval House (OS grid ref: NH 84781 46472) was lived in by other people named Mackintosh – probably family members.  In 1876 the house is described as:  A farm house two stories [ storeys] high with suitable offices the former slated the latter thatched the whole are in fair repair. A.E. Macintosh Esqr Moy Hall InvernessShire proprietor.  The house is now a ruin or gone all together and not marked on maps.

Donald Street

Named after the man who owned the land on which the street is built, Alfred Donald Mackintosh (1851-1938), Chief of the Mackintosh clan.  Houses date from around 1884.  Home of a real gem, the Albany Hotel (1895).  The shop next door, Joey Brewer, is no longer there, but is fondly remembered by many.

Donald Street VE Day party celebrations, Alfred Donald Mackintosh, Joey Brewer outside his shop, the Albany Hotel on the corner with Dalcross Street.

Mackintosh Place

In 1880 Harriet Richards, whose family owned Plasnewydd (now the Mackintosh Sports and Social club) and a lot of surrounding  land, married Alfred Mackintosh, chief of the Mackintosh clan, who had even more land in Scotland.  When the land was sold for development many streets were named after them.  Street dates from 1884. Mackintosh Gospel Hall, now called Mackintosh Evangelical church was opened in 1897.

Moy Road. 

The houses date from 1884. Named after Moy Hall, Inverness-shire, home of the Mackintosh clan, built  around 1800 and demolished in the 1950s. In 1921 King George V was staying at Moy Hall,  guest of his friend Alfred Mackintosh and Prime Minister David Lloyd-George (also on holiday in the Highlands) was asked to visit to discuss a draft of a letter to be sent to Eamon de Valera regarding the Anglo- Irish Treaty.  

Ninian Road

Named after Ninian Crichton-Stuart, who became MP for Cardiff and was killed in WWI at the Battle of Loos. He was son of the Marquess of Bute. The houses date from 1899. An old tram and trolley bus route with the terminus at the west end. Ninian Road is also home of the Victorian Pillar box being enveloped by a tree and the recently renovated Roath Park House House which was home of William Pettigrew, Cardiff’s Head Gardener. There is also a sad story of Harriett Fleming who used to live at number 3. Number 81 was home of William McKenzie the Chief Constable.

Pen-y-wain Road

Pen-y-wain probably means head or end of the meadow/moor/marsh (waun). It is named after the farm that covered the whole area, the homestead being just on Shirley Road. Home of Roath Park Congregational Church (now Tabernacle church) built in 1898 and Roath Park Primary School built in 1894. The houses date from 1897.

Pen-y-wain Road, Roath Park, Cardiff

Shirley Road

The houses date from around 1905. Not named after Dame Shirley Bassey which would have been nice, but after Lewis Vincent Shirley, the solicitor for both the Marquess of Bute and the Mackintosh estate. He died at Plasnewydd (now Mackintosh club) and left £74,000 in his will which is around £10 million in today’s money.  An ardent conservative who got into a public spat with John Batchelor (the man with a statue in the Hayes).  There has been a florist shop on the corner for many years as can be seen by the old 1957 advertisement.