From 1840, the
Taff Vale Railway company developed a railway line through Cathays, where they also developed the
Cathays railway works. A major carriage and wagon construction and maintenance facility, it and the associated
locomotive depot were taken over and maintained by the
Great Western Railway. After nationalisation in 1946,
British Railways sold the business and leased the site to the
Pullman Company Ltd, where they maintained their carriages until the 1970s. The depot was closed from the late 1960s, and was later redeveloped for buildings now used by
Cardiff University. The carriage and wagon works was redeveloped in the early 2000s, and now houses a
Lidl store and a student accommodation block.
Cathays railway station opened in 1983, adjacent to the
students' union building which encloses the railway tracks. In 1875,
Nazareth House was opened to provide accommodation for orphans and the elderly. A popular local charity, one of its many benefactors was the boxer
Jim Driscoll, who, since his burial in
Cathays cemetery in 1925, has had his grave tended by the nuns of Nazareth House. In 1898,
John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute sold a large piece of land to
Cardiff Council for the building of a new
City Hall, imposing strict conditions regarding its purpose and where development could take place. As a result, City Hall was built as far south in the purchased block of land as possible, and the residual area to its north used for civic, cultural and educational purposes only. City Hall cost £129,000 to build, and was completed in 1905 when Cardiff was awarded city status. The land purchased by the council to the north of the city hall now houses: •
Cardiff University, which moved from
Newport Road to Cathays Park in 1909 •
National Museum Cardiff, opened in 1927 •
Welsh National War Memorial, unveiled in 1928 •
Crown Buildings, the
Welsh Government's main offices in Cardiff; the largest building in Cathays Park •
Temple of Peace and Health (usually known as the Temple of Peace), opened in 1938 Maindy Pool was a
clay pit that had gradually filled with water. After the death by drowning of ten children and adults, it was filled in by using it as a rubbish tip. In 1948 the building of
Maindy Stadium began on the same site, completed in 1951, which held cycling races in the
1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. When the stadium was closed and replaced with a
leisure centre, part of the site became a swimming pool.
Cathays Library is a
Carnegie library built in 1906 and refurbished in 2009–10.
Companies House, which holds the registration records of all companies registered in England or Wales, has its headquarters in Cathays. ==Today==