Above: The Vulcan pictured in 2000
The Vulcan Hotel in Adamstown looks like it is going to close its doors for the last time at the end of May this year. Its 3 year stay-of-execution is over and the bulldozers will be demolishing this historic piece of Cardiff to build another car park. Media Wales announced the story today and also has some celebrity endorsements of the pub. The BBC also run the story on their website.
We all realise that trade has dropped off since the UWIC building opposite built their own student union but everyone agrees this is a pub worth saving. Okay the effort could have been made by Cardiff Council and CADW over 10 years ago but the Council is more interested in car parks for the shopping centre than preserving the heritage of the City. CADW, the Welsh equivalent of English Heritage, have consistently ignored the pleas from people wishing to save this piece of heritage from the bulldozer, even saying that the Golden Cross nearby has been given Grade II listed status as its a better quality building, completely missing the point that this 160 tiled-frontage building is historic in hardly changing in all those years. The inside was refurbished in the 1950s and this is the layout that remains today, although the unique outside gents toilets with their brown porcelain urinals are no doubt older and possibly original to the 1850s building. Apparently a collector in the States is interested in buying this bit of Cardiff history but I would prefer it to stay where it is.
Above: the unique brown urinals
An idea put around a few years ago was for the pub to be removed to St Fagans Musuem, other heritage sites such as Ironbridge Gorge Museum have their own pubs and its been rumoured that St Fagans have been looking around for one for years. As the pub is no longer viable and the students opposite are not using the pub, surely the best option now is to see the building rebuilt at the museum where future generations may be able to experience it for themselves, rather than being just another demolished Cardiff pub?
Above: Guinness is Good For You sign on the side of the pub
To say that the pub is unused by university students is simply not true. As a student at the Atrium (across the road) which is part of the university of Glamorgan (not UWIC as is reported in this article), I know for a fact that most nights the pub is fairly busy considering its size. Furthermore, their open mic nights on a friday night continue to pack the pub full to the rafters week after week thanks to the talent of the music students who study just across the road. To use the pubs lack of custom as an excuse for its demolition is pure fabrication. This pub is a historic part of Cardiff, and deserves saving!
ReplyDeleteBeer is in peril - defend it with all your might.
I was going by what the manageress told me last year when I was filming in the empty pub for a BBC documentary. The opening hours of the pub were restricted due to lack of trade.
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