The Pub

The Arcade

Outside the Pub is the pathway that gave the Pub its name – the arcade from Church Street into the Market – now gated at Church Street and displaying the Welsh football frescoes

Cardiff has become known as the City of Arcades due to the number created from Victorian times. The arcades thrive on shop and restaurant businesses but the oldest is the Old Arcade, which is just a walkway into the side entrance of the Cardiff Indoor Market. The Arcade dates back just before Victorian times in 1835, whilst most of the remainder were purpose built in Victorian and Edwardian times

The Arcade from Church Street into the Indoor market was created after the County Gaol was opened in Adam Street, leaving only the smaller town Gaol at the St Mary Street end of the market. The indoor market was born and a few years later the Public House was opened

The land outside the castle had been divided into narrow parcels of land called burgage plots from mediaeval time, which gradually became overcrowded, and slums developed. The Cholera epidemic of the 1840s caused a Health enquiry and the slum housing was gradually replaced – some with covered arcades. The Royal arcade and several others became Shopping centres unlike the arcade from Church Street

The Arcade provides doorways into the Pub and also cellar trapdoors where the beer barrels were hauled down the cellar

The pictures show the arcade today and a few years ago where you can see the blocked-up side-door entrance, which used to serve the back bar

The Arcade alongside the bar leading to an entrance of Cardiff Market

Red Wall – Mike Peters the lead singer of the Alarm is the centre point of Welsh football’s Red Wall mural on the opposite side of the arcade –

Dragon in the Arcade is another mural further towards the market

The Evolving Public House

The Old Arcade of today is divided into two main bars – normally referred to as the Front (Church Street end) and Back bars – and a smaller room adjoining the market and leading out to the Arcade. However, the downstairs layout hasn’t always looked the same with several changes over the years

The Old Arcade Public House building sits in 14 and 15 Church Street in Central Cardiff, and although the use of the rooms has changed a few times over the years, you can still see some late-Victorian fittings in the back bar. You can see mirrored panels behind the Bars and a mahogany counter in the back room. The original fireplaces are a century old and the fantastic Victorian mirror that was formerly on the wall of the lounge is now behind the front Bar

A series of upgrades and alterations were made in the Old Arcade from June 1889 to February 1923. In 1915 there were entrances in the Arcade/Church Street corner of the front bar and two in the back bar –

The ground floor layout in 1906 is shown in the photograph, note the smoking rooms and the Shop. The Shop was a lockup selling boots and entered through the Church Street door of number 14. The toilets in the top left-hand corner were still there in the late 1960s and the two Bars and two Smoke rooms are plain to see

Old Arcade Layout Plan 1906

Old Arcade Layout Plan 1915

The 1915 ground floor plan still shows the Shop although one of the Smoke rooms has moved. In 1923 the Public Works committee approved a new ground floor plan as the place continued to evolve

Between 1927 and 1929 the rental renewals for properties in Trinity Street and Church Street were being negotiated for the Homfrey estate and the Old Arcade gets a mention for a rental renewal in the 1930s

In the late 20^th Century, the Arcade entrance to the front of the Back Bar was blocked although you can still see the doorway outline. The 1990’s also saw the end of the partitions or Settles in the Back Bar

Upstairs and Beyond

Ascending the stairs to the first floor, you come to the main living room that fronts Church Street and partially covers the Arcade itself.

The stairwell continues to the roof from where you can see St John’s Church and the top of the Market, and interestingly you can also make out the lane along the side of the old Market Tavern (now O’Neill’s) that would have reached the back of the Ship and Dolphin, when it was reputed to have linked Trinity Street with Church Street many years ago

The Bars

The Old Arcade of today is divided into two main bars – normally referred to as the Front and Back bars – and a smaller room adjoining the market and leading out to the Arcade. Although a similar downstairs layout, it hasn’t always looked the same with several changes over the years

The Front Bar

Both main Bars are adorned with memorabilia from days gone by and the Front bar is now backed by the old infamous mirror, which used to hang on the back (or southern) wall of the back room

As you step into the Back bar you pass “Slogger’s Corner” – a table where Bernard Slogger Templeman held court on a regular basis and where many of the local retired sportsmen used to join him. Unfortunately, the sign for “Slogger’s corner” is now found in the Back bar following a reconstruction a few years back

The Back Bar

There used to be a separate entrance directly from the Arcade, which is now filled in. The southern wall is now a glassed partition but used to be a permanent wall with the entrance on the bar side (opposite to the present entrance)

That permanent wall once held the infamous mirror. Infamous because it had a flaw on the one side, which became a talking point and even a quiz question

The Back holds lots of sporting memorabilia behind the bar as well as on the walls including the Six Nations flags, which have come to be a permanent feature

Memorabilia

The history of Welsh Rugby is shown through a number of pictures on the wall of the Front Bar which is captured in this video.

Rugby-like games such as Cnapan were played in Wales for centuries and even reprieved in the 1980s in Pembrokeshire and remembered in the Cnapan Music festival in Ffostrasol, Ceredigion

Rugby Union started through the colleges and was boosted by the Industrial times of the late nineteenth century. It was established in the late nineteenth century in Wales and, after a not too successful start, it became the sport of the working class and soon gathered momentum.

Wales won the Triple Crown in 1893, and between 1900 and 1914 the Welsh team would win the trophy on six occasions, and when France joined the tournament that included three Grand Slams. They also beat the New Zealand All Blacks 3-0, on their first meeting in Cardiff in 1905

The First World War, decline in the mining industries and the Great depression had a negative effect on the Welsh game, but it didn’t seem to affect Cardiff City Football Club

The height of Welsh rugby was reached the 1970s, when Wales clearly dominated the Home Nations

Rugby union is the national sport of Wales and well-remembered in the Old Arcade

There are numerous jerseys throughout the Pub, and those shown are just a selection at the moment. We are investigating the history of each and will be adding to the information on an evolving basis

The Brains v Brawn poster remembers the 2005 French game in Paris when the Welsh needed to change their shirt advertising to comply with French law of not advertising alcohol

Arthur Gould first played rugby for Wales in 1885 and went onto captain the national side in 18 games. His picture adorns the Old Arcade amongst a wealth of rugby memorabilia.

Originally fullback for Newport RFC, he moved into the centre and was awarded the Welsh captaincy in 1889 going onto win 27 caps – an international record at the time

He earned the nickname “Monkey” and was widely regarded as the best player of his generation, indeed four years after gaining the captaincy, he led Wales to their very first Home Nations Championship and the Triple Crown

Modern Times

In recent times, Lugansk in the Ukraine had a copy of the Old Arcade Public House built in 1990. The first 3D football game (Arsenal v Manchester United) was screened on SKY TV at the Old A (Gary Corp’s reign)

In 2006 a heated outdoor area was constructed with a sliding roof to the south of the back bar and ahead of the smoking ban

In early 2021 Brains handed over to Marston’s, and still retains most of it’s memorabilia and characteristics