Although John Speed’s first map of Cardiff in 1610 indicates buildings on the present site, it wasn’t until almost Victorian times that we see evidence of a tavern. By the late 1820’s the Cardiff Town gaol on St Mary’s Street was too small to deal with the growing population and eventually a new County prison was opened just outside of the town in 1832. The town gaol was still operative for several years after Dic Penderyn was hanged outside the gaol on the gallows in St. Mary’s Street on 13 August 1831. By then the area behind was turned into a new Indoor Market. In 1835, an arcade was built to access the new covered Market from Church Street. This was probably the first arcade in the centre of Cardiff which, by the end of the nineteenth century, was famous for its multitude of arcades.

Alongside the arcade, a public house was built and in 1844 was named the Birdcage: later to be called the Arcade and Post office, the Arcade Vaults and eventually around 1900 – The Old Arcade.