{"id":16914,"date":"2016-01-07T14:11:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T14:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=16914"},"modified":"2016-01-07T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T14:11:58","slug":"glazed-tiles-grade-ii-listing-and-drag-acts-the-wonderful-golden-cross-pub-in-cardiff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/glazed-tiles-grade-ii-listing-and-drag-acts-the-wonderful-golden-cross-pub-in-cardiff\/","title":{"rendered":"Glazed tiles, Grade II listing and drag acts: the wonderful Golden Cross pub in Cardiff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

The Golden Cross, a\u00a0splendid\u00a0Grade II listed public house, can be found at the\u00a0junction of Customhouse Street\u00a0and\u00a0Hayes Bridge Road in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

There’s been a pub on the site since 1849, although the name has changed over the years: it opened as the Shields and Newcastle Tavern, and was renamed the Castle Inn in 1855 before settling on the name of The Golden Cross in 1863.<\/p>\n

Around 1903\/4 it was rebuilt in its current form, with the fa\u00e7ade incorporating\u00a0glazed tiles and lots of wonderful architectural details.<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

Despite some beastly modern additions, much of the original interior remains intact, including\u00a0this\u00a0glazed tiled mural of Cardiff Castle.<\/p>\n

The new landlord – a very friendly and affable chap – told me that he intends to strip out a lot of the\u00a0modern junk, hopefully\u00a0starting with the horrible clock behind the bar.<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

Writing in his informative study,\u00a0Cardiff Pubs and Breweries<\/a> (The History Press),\u00a0Brian Glover recalled some of the pub’s colourful history:<\/p>\n

Despite its religious name, it was far from a holy place. Its rebuilding only moved it upmarket.<\/p>\n

It offered a lively night on the tiles for sailors off the ships and developed a reputation as the smartest brothel in town.<\/p>\n

Its alluring atmosphere was laced with legends. One of its red-light regulars, Carrie Gilmore, was notoriously stabbed to death in West Canal Wharf in 1907, and her murderer was dubbed the Cardiff Ripper.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

Glover continues with a heart-warming tale of how the fascist\u00a0Oswald Mosley was sent packing in the 1930s:<\/p>\n

Oswald Mosley tried to hold a meeting of his black-shirted fascists in the pub before the Second World War, but his car was overturned by local protesters, and he retreated, bruised and battered back to London.<\/p>\n

During the war American servicemen enjoyed the delights of the Golden Cross and one young GI is alleged to have swung his first fist in anger during a fight in the bar. His name was Rocky Marciano.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

The pub’s\u00a0original ceramic bar is one of just two in Wales –\u00a0one of only 20 in the UK – and it’s recognised as one of\u00a0the top 10 most unspoilt pubs in the UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite being listed in 1975, the pub was scheduled to be flattened by a\u00a0new ring road scheme in 1978.<\/p>\n

Thankfully,\u00a0the county council was persuaded to reverse its original decision after a campaign led by the South Wales Echo and its regulars.<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The British Listed Buildings website<\/a>\u00a0explains the bar’s Grade II status:<\/p>\n

History<\/strong>
\nPublic house; circa 1903 (date on tiles in bar).<\/p>\n

Interior<\/strong>
\nSaloon bar on ground floor at west end; walls lined with polychrome tiles; tiled floral frieze in relief. Bar with hard wood top and with external covering of tiles with grotesque pattern in relief. Engraved glass in doors and screen. Walls of entrance lobby, larger one of Cardiff Castle, dated 1903 and smaller one of Cardiff Town Hall; both by firm of Craven, Dunhill and Co, Salop.<\/p>\n

Exterior<\/strong>
\nTwo-storey public house. South east front of 6 bays (L bay is broader), plus splayed corner bay to R; 2 bays to sides. Red brick with yellow brick pilasters, aprons etc. 2 windows with curved heads to each bay on first floor with single cornice and aprons over; parapet above. On ground floor, elaborate tiled pub front with Venetian windows; green and gold tiling with raised lettering to fascias, tiled panelling to pilasters and stall risers.<\/p>\n

Reason for Listing<\/strong>
\nStriking public house, well-preserved, with particularly good tiles to fa\u00e7ade and interior.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

Hosting\u00a0a large bar and lounge area, the pub now hosts regular live music acts, drag nights and comedy events.<\/p>\n

Although the Golden Cross is now a popular\u00a0gay\/LGBT pub – it was voted as the best gay pub in the UK\u00a0in 2004 –\u00a0it’s equally welcoming to people of all sexual persuasions.<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

Here’s some more photos from my visit:<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

\"Glazed<\/p>\n

Pub details:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Golden Cross
\n282 Hayes Bridge Road
\nCF10 1GH
\nPhone : (029) 20394556
\nBrewery website:\u00a0sabrain.com\/golden-cross<\/a>
\nFacebook page<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

More reading:
\nCAMRA feature<\/a>
\nMemories of Cardiff’s Golden Cross pub<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golden Cross, a\u00a0splendid\u00a0Grade II listed public house, can be found at the\u00a0junction of Customhouse Street\u00a0and\u00a0Hayes Bridge Road in Cardiff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20,196,17,193,198,16],"tags":[1196,1359,1360,61,1348,1347,1349,1350,1361,1357,1358,438,36],"class_list":["post-16914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiff","category-nightlife","category-photos","category-places","category-wales-places","category-wales","tag-cardiff","tag-drag","tag-drag-nights","tag-gay","tag-gay-pub","tag-golden-cross","tag-grade-ii","tag-hayes-bridge-road","tag-lgbt","tag-oswald-mosley","tag-pool-table","tag-pub","tag-pubs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/golden-cross-pub-cardiff-04.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-4oO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16943,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16914\/revisions\/16943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}