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Eating & Drinking

THE LOST PUBS OF LLANDAFF


THE GREYHOUND.

This coaching Inn was in Ely Road, opposite Caewal Road in the space now taken by the access road to Cranmer Court. A blacksmith’s forge operated in its courtyard and it was approached through an archway.  In the 19th century a Mr Kirby ran a carriage business from this yard using light horse-drawn vehicles known as “flies”. An early taxi business!  After The Greyhound ceased to be an Inn it became known as Llandaff Mews and still stood in the 1960’s.


THE BUSH sometimes known as THE CROWN.

This was a small thatched building standing against the castle wall to the left of the entrance gateway. The remains of the roof line can still be seen in the castle wall.


THE SWAN.

This stood on the western side of the Cathedral green and is now number 15, The Cathedral Green.


THE RED LION.

Yet another reference to the Coat of Arms of the Mathew family. Together with Tower House, it was demolished in the early 1920’s to reveal the Old Bell Tower, as part of the War Memorial works.


THE WHITE LION

Standing at the head of the Green on the corner of Heol y Pavin, this is yet another reference to the Mathew Arms. Long since demolished, it appears in early photographs of the Green.


THE MASON’S ARMS

Now a private house known as “The Old Mason’s Arms” it stood on the western side of Bridge Street, some fifty metres from the Green.  It seems to have had a fairly brief life as a pub, but until it was refurbished about fifteen years ago, the interior was much as it must have been , with low ceilings and dark brown wainscoting.


THE MITRE

On the corner of Bridge Street and Mitre Place and replaced by housing (Mitre Court).  This pub’s name is accounted for by the fact that it was built on ground owned by the Cathedral Chapter.



These eleven pubs didn’t all trade at the same time – the Mitre, for instance, took over the license of one of the former inns on the Green – but Llandaff certainly always had enough pubs to satisfy the large and thirsty visitors to it its popular Fairs.


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