Cardiff remembered: Old town hall visited by great and good including TomThumb

The old Cardiff Town Hall in High Street. Image: Media Wales

Written by Brian Lee

CARDIFF’S first town hall, which was also known as the Town House, Bothhall or Guildhall, was erected half-way along High Street in 1331.

A two-storey building, the upper floor served as a court room and general assembly room.

On the ground floor could be found the prison cells, stocks, water pump and the corn and meat markets, which were better known as the “Shambles”.

A turret, town bell and clock tower were added much later but by 1741 the building was in such a bad state of repair that a decision was made to build another town hall on the same site.

This new building featured a Georgian facade and a double flight of stone steps flanked by an ironwork balustrade, was opened in 1747.

The statue of John, Second Marquess of Bute, which later stood at the southern end of St Mary Street, was erected in front of the new town hall in 1853.

With the increase in the population in the days when “Coal was King” and the subsequent opening of the Bute Dock it soon became clear that a much larger town hall was needed.

An acre of land between St Mary Street and Westgate Street – where the Commercial Bank of Wales later stood –  was put aside and building commenced in 1849.

During the work, earlier walls were found and a circular stairway of great depth, thought to be part of the old town’s defences, was also uncovered.

Opened in 1853, the new town hall housed the old town hall, old post office, police court and parade ground, as well as the fire brigade offices and rates office.

It served the people of Cardiff until the opening of the City Hall in Cathays Park by Lord Bute in 1906.

It was in the July of 1857 that the celebrated American “General Tom Thumb” said to be the smallest man alive as he was just 31in tall and weighed 25lb visited the town hall and “the little General rides daily to and from the hall of exhibition in his miniature chariot drawn by the smallest ponies in the world, and attended by elfin coach-men”.

It cost a shilling to see General Tom Thumb by day but in the evening the price of entrance was reduced to sixpence “for the accommodation of mechanics and working classes”.

Sam Allen, in his Cardiff Reminiscences, tells us that: “The old town hall was for a long time partly covered by bill-stickers and the last display heralded the visit to the town of a circus.

“Its great speciality being that of a steam organ that could be heard for five miles.

“When it arrived it fully justified the description, for it had a little locomotive boiler on a high wagon, with a series of vertical brass steam whistles.

“The musician, who was a blind man, was perched on a rostrum with a keyboard. He managed to wake up the good folk of Cardiff as it was drawn through town.”

Meanwhile, how did Thurston Street and Bassett Street in Canton get their names?

I might be wrong but I believe they were named after Ralph Thurston Bassett who died in 1903.

Born in 1850, his family tree dated back to the Normans.

Members of the Bassett family filled the office of Sheriff of Glamorgan as long ago as 1557.

His mother was the second daughter of  John Homfray, of Pennlline Castle, and his father, Richard Bassett, resided at Bonvilston House.

In 1878, Ralph Thurston Bassett married Augusta Maria, second daughter of Captain CF Tyler, of Cottrell.

A keen horseman and excellent judge of horses, he was chiefly responsible for the Cowbridge Hunt Steeplechases.

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