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Cardiff: the building of a capital | ||||
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Where did people live ?Early housing development of Cardiff was tightly controlled by the three landed estates that dominated the city.
This process led to the unique features of the Cardiff that we can see today. Houses designed by each estate architect have certain uniformity and standards unusual in other early Victorian cities. This is highlighted by contrasting buildings on the Bute and Tredegar estate lands with those built by the National Freehold Land Society. The National Freehold Land Society was established in 1849 by John Bright, Richard Cobden, and Sir Josiah Walmsley with the aim of increasing the numbers of people able to vote. At that time the right to vote was restricted to those owning property worth over a set amount per year. The society purchased 110 acres of land from the sale of the Romily Estate in 1852 in the Canton area of Cardiff.
By 1840 the Bute estate owned ten times more land in Cardiff than the Corporation. The second marquess established high standards for the buildings erected on his land, a practice continued by his son who ensured all houses had gardens. He also established squares throughout the estate lands. The distinctive naming of the streets and features of Cardiff emphasise the links between the city and the family. Bute Street, Mountstuart Square, Ninian Park and Sophia Gardens are just a few examples. Butetown was intended to be an area for both merchants and dock workers. Gradually the wealthier merchants moved out of the city altogether, many to the spaciously laid out streets of Tredegarville, the earliest development within Roath. Butetown became gradually more important as the commercial centre of the coal exporting industry. Buildings such as the Coal and Shipping Exchange and the Pier Head building became focal points.
1875 The ever increasing population of the city by 1875 led to an extension of its boundaries to include Roath and Canton.
Houses in Tredegarville, built on land owned by Lord Tredegar, were intended to be high quality houses for wealthier individuals. Those streets named after jewels and minerals were slightly lower quality housing. The Mackintosh Estate, around Plasnewydd provided housing for the lower middle classes from the 1880s onwards, as did the Freehold Land Society in Canton at a similar date. 1914
Following the war and the Housing Assisted Schemes Act 1919 Cardiff’s building programme increased so much so that sites had to be acquired outside the city boundaries. This led, in 1922, to the further extension of the boundaries to the north and west of the city and the creation of the new wards of Penylan, Llandaff and Gabalfa. Housing estates were laid out at Ely, Mynachdy and Tremorfa. The Ely estate was very much influenced by the Garden City movement, and was based around a wide tree lined avenue called Grand Avenue which stretches for more than a mile across the length of the suburb. At one time the estate was the largest municipal housing provided in Europe. Families moved into these houses from the crowded streets of Splott, Adamsdown and Butetown.
Caerau, a later extension of the original estate, was built in the 1950s and 1960s on a similar design, with Heol Trelai mirroring the Grand Avenue. In 1937 the parish of Rumney was incorporated within the city. In the 1930s clearing slums and rehousing tenants under the Housing Acts of 1930, 1933 and 1935 became the Corporation's policy. Despite lying in Monmouthshire, land in Rumney and St Mellon’s was chosen to balance the city’s municipal housing areas on the west of the city. The area was extensively urbanized in the 1950s, and a further boundary extension in 1951 brought Llanrumney into the city. 1967 Rhiwbina and Whitchurch wards were formed in 1966. Most of Rhiwbina had been laid out in the early 20th century on Garden City principals but had resisted incorporation into the city. Cardiff's expansion in 1974 and 1996 coincided with local government reorganisation.
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