PGW(Gm)26(CDF)

Cathays Park  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Cardiff  

Castle  

318223  

176961  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Urban public park: formal gardens; informal gardens  

1903-06; 1924-28  

Cathays Park is registered for its historic interest as a large, roughly rectangular area of public open space containing three main garden spaces: Alexandra Gardens, Gorsedd Gardens, and Friary Gardens, which are all contemporary with the original Edwardian laying out of the park. Cathays Park lies to the east of Bute Park and to the north of the main commercial centre of Cardiff. Each garden has its own different character and each retains its original layout. The setting of these gardens is a magnificent group of public buildings and its attendant tree-lined spacious roads, the layout of which reflects the underlying earlier park. Cathays Park originated as a private park of the Bute Estate laid out from 1812, and was purchased for the public in 1897. The idea of purchasing Cathays Park from the Butes for public use was mooted as early as the 1850s, but nothing came of it until the 1890s. Negotiations were opened in 1892, and in 1897 a purchase price for 59 acres of £159,000 was accepted. Mr William Harpur, drew up layout plans for the park in 1899 which included Gorsedd Gardens and Friary Gardens. He produced detailed plans in 1903, and development began. Alexandra Gardens, first called University Gardens, was laid out and planted in 1903 and formally opened and renamed Alexandra Gardens by the Queen on 27 July 1910. It is the largest of the three parks. Rectangular in shape, it comprises a five-acre garden with the Welsh National Memorial of the European War (1914-18) in the centre (Cadw listed building ref:13742). It is largely laid out to formal lawns with island beds and specimen trees. The War Memorial is of exceptional quality and forms an imposing focal point for the gardens. To the south-east is Gorsedd Gardens, a sub-triangular 2-acre (0.8ha) area of informal garden opposite the National Museum. Gorsedd Gardens was enclosed and partly laid out in 1904-5, the public being finally admitted in 1910. It is laid out with lawns, specimen trees and tree and shrub borders and hedges. Winding brick paths run through the gardens and around the Gorsedd circle, re-erected here in 1905, having formerly been put up elsewhere in the park for the National Eisteddfod of 1899. A number of statues adorn the gardens. On the north side is a standing bronze statue of David Lloyd George. At the south end of the garden, next to the path, is a statue to John Cory, coal owner and philanthropist, by Sir W. Goscombe John. Next to the path in the north-west corner of the garden is another Goscombe John statue, of Lord Ninian Edward Crichton Stuart (1883-1915), who fell in France at the battle of Loos. Immediately to the west of the garden, set in an area of grass between the Boulevard de Nantes and the City Hall, is a large equestrian statue by Goscombe John of the 1st Viscount Tredegar To the south, Friary Gardens occupies a triangular area of about 1 acre (0.4ha) divided into two areas by the Dock Feeder Canal, flanked by deciduous trees, which crosses it. The southern half is a slightly sunken triangular area laid out as a formal parterre garden of box-edged beds and gravel paths. Formerly known as a 'Dutch garden', it has retained its original layout. In the middle of the path along the north side is a large statue by P. Macgillivray to John, 3rd Marquis of Bute, Baron Cardiff, Earl of Dumfries, Earl of Windsor (1847-1900), erected in 1928. Friary Gardens was enclosed in the autumn of 1904 and laid out in the winter of 1905/6. Setting: The setting of these parks is the magnificent group of public buildings forming Cardiff's Civic Centre with its attendant tree-lined spacious roads, the layout of which reflects the underlying earlier park. Sources: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)26(CDF). Pettigrew, A., 'The public parks and recreation grounds of Cardiff' (1926), vol. II, pp. 149 ff. and vol VI, pp. 72-76. Cardiff Central Library. Chappell, E.L., Cardiff's Civic Centre (1946). Newman, J., The buildings of Wales. Glamorgan (1995), pp. 220-37.