Cardiff Pub Closures

From Brew Wales

Following up from the occasional series on pub closures in the Newport, over the weekend the Brew Wales editorial team decided to take a similar look at Cardiff pubs. Needed a list of pubs to begin with, so the 1996 Complete Guide to Cardiff's Pubs was the starting point. This excellent booklet, written by Dave Matthews (Seidr Dai) is still useful today and was a follow-up to an edition published the previous year. Also used was the Cardiff Pubs foldaway booklet published in 2005 plus some local knowledge and of course the South Wales Echo.

Pubs closed since 1996

1. Purple Dragon
2. Angel Tavern
3. Avondale
4. Baltimore Arms
5. Baroness of Windsor (SA Brain)
6. Bel Air Cafe Bar
7. Bird in Hand
8. Bristol Hotel
9. Bulldog Inn
10. Bute Dock
11. Carpenters Arms
12. Comet
13. Crown
14. Crown Hotel
15. Custom House, (SA Brain) demolished
16. Eldon Arms
17. Emporium
18. Gio's Cafe Bar
19. Glendower Hotel, (SA Brain) demolished
20. Global Beer Co
21. Green Parrot
22. Grosvenor
23. Guildhall Tavern, converted to Chinese Restaurant
24. Gws
25. Harvester
26. Horse & Groom
27. Inn on the River, demolished, (SA Brain)
28. Jumpin' Jacks
29. Locomotive
30. Lord Windsor
31. New Addie, was the Moira
32. Moorlands Hotel
33. New Dock Tavern (SA Brain)
34. Old Airport Inn
35. Orange kipper
36. Paddle Steamer
37. Park Vaults
38. Pierhead Cafe Bar
39. Plymouth
40. Potter's Wheel
41. Pump House Tavern
42. Radyr Arms
43. Rat & Carrot
44. Red House
45. Royal Exchange
46. Rumpoles (SA Brain)
47. Ruperra
48. Tredegar Hotel
49. Ty Glas
50. Wells Hotel
51. White Lion
52. Yardarm

Almost the same number of pubs closed in Cardiff from 1996 as in Newport since 1997 comes as a bit of surprise, though Cardiff has a greater population and larger area. This is shown by more pubs being refurbished and changing their names since 1996, ie, more money being spent on the pubs.

Pubs renamed since 1996

1. 42^nd Street – Bar Billibong (SA Brain)
2. Albert – Yard (SA Brain)
3. The Anthonys – Caerau
4. Apollo – Cayo Arms (Marstons)
5. Canal Boat – Blackweir Tavern (SA Brain)
6. Toucan Club – Callaghan's Irish Bar
7. Clancy's – George
8. Cross Inn – Aneurin Bevan (JDW)
9. Exchange – Cornerstone
10. Ferret & His Trouser Leg – Philharmonic
11. Flyhalf and Firkin – Queens Vaults (JW Basset)
12. Four Bars – Dempseys (SA Brain)
13. Leather Bottle – Jug and Bottle
14. Maindy Hotel – North Star
15. Market Tavern – O'Neils
16. Morgans – Buccaneer
17. Mulligans – Kitty Flynns
18. Murrayfield – Grand Slam
19. Newt & Cucumber – Copa
20. New Ely – the End
21. O'Dwyer's Bar – Forester's
22. Pennsylvania – New Penn
23. Poacher's Lodge – Mochyn Du
24. Rose & Crown – Barfly
25. Rosie O'Brien's Pumphouse – Flares
26. Royal Hotel – O'Neils
27. Sam's Bar – Zinc
28. Ship & Pilot – Mischief's Cafe Bar
29. Yellow Kangaroo – Bar YK

Again the pub openings have been more than Newport, though there is still net loss of 29 pubs in 13 years for Cardiff, compared with a net loss of 43 Newport pubs in 12 years.

Pubs Opened Since 1996

1. Central Bar (JDW)
2. Crockerton (JDW)
3. Prince of Wales (JDW)
4. Ernest Willows(JDW)
5. Ivor Davies (JDW)
6. Gatekeeper (JDW)
7. Terra Nova (SA Brain)
8. Salt (SA Brain)
9. Slug and Lettuce
10. Red Cow
11. Y Cadno (Evan Evans)
    
12. 33 Windsor Place (SA Brain)
13. Cardiff Gate
14. Aneurin Bevan (JDW) was Cross Inn, Gabalfa
15. Eli Jenkins (M & B)
    
16. Hemingway
17. Goscombe (Barracuda)
    
18. Great Western (JDW)
19. Inncognito (SA Brain)
20. Varsity (Barracuda)
    
21. Walkabout
22. Watergaurd (Sam Smith's)
23. Gwdihw
    

Admittedly some of those new openings are cafe bars and there are a that may be missed off the above list. Also the new hotel bars have not been included – very few of them are of interest to the average pub goer.