The Vulcan, Cardiff

The Vulcan Hotel was a stand alone pub that was situated on a busy road just off the city centre. Once inside i went into a decent sized bar,that was fairly basic with bare boards,the pub was a Brains tied house,there were two real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Brains bitter which went down well,the other beer was Brains SA. I was happy enough having a drink in this pub,it is a great shame that it has now closed down. Pub visited 28/5/2005

I made an effort to get in here as it’s a pub very much under threat of demolition and development despite holding quite a bit of history. The pub is one of the last surviving buildings of the original Newtown area and now stands stubbornly alone amidst car parks and developments. The striking tiled exterior and frosted windows do look a little intimidating and the interior décor lives up to what you expect – a (very) basic old-fashioned boozer - wooden floor, fairly dark and, as noted elsewhere, rather ‘worn’...it needs some TLC. The walls are adorned with black and white pictures from Cardiff’s past. We were amongst the first customers of the day and there were two Brains ales on. I tried a half of each and they were in decent shape and fairly cheap too. Smelt heavily of industrial cleaner, which I found off-putting. A couple of mounted ship’s wheels caught my eye. There was also a dart board. Whilst I’m glad I visited, I’m not sure that I’d make a big effort to return the next time above others.

On the fringes of the City Centre in the midst of many new modern developments stands The Vulcan Hotel, a basic old fashioned pub that has been under threat for a number of years now by further planned developments in the area. It now stands rather forlornly on its own with largish car parks on either side as its next door neighbours. A vigorous ongoing campaign to save the pub from the bulldozers was launched a number of years ago and I understand that its future, in the short term at least, is now secure. It dates back to 1853 and is one of the oldest pubs in Cardiff. It has a distinctive tiled frontage with frosted leaded windows. Inside we find, literally, a spit and sawdust pub that is rather dark and dingy and has clearly seen better days, rather worn and dirty seat covers being particularly noticeable. There’s plenty of evocative photos of the old Cardiff docks and shipworkers and, by the bar, a series of framed black and white photos of old Cardiff pubs that have already been lost. In one corner of the pub a lifesize replica of whom I took to be Louis Armstrong watches over proceedings. A small carpeted lounge at the rear has settles and photos of old Brains brewery directors and a rather musty smell to it. The inevitable outside toilets have fine porcelain urinals Posters advertise open mic nights on the first Friday of every month and poker nights on Wednesday and it is clear that the pub is keen to keep business as usual. Perhaps surprisingly, given the high profile campaign to save the pub, there’s no framed newspaper cuttings / articles in evidence anywhere in the pub recording their ongoing battle for survival. On my recent lunchtime visit, there were only 2 other customers in the pub, evidently locals, conversing in a rather subdued fashion with the landlady. It’s a Brains pub ( surprise, surprise !) and was offering Bitter, SA and Gold. The Bitter, at a notably cheap £ 2.20p, was reasonable. When, earlier in the year, I visited The Coachmakers Arms in Hanley, Stoke, another pub that is the subject of a high profile campaign to try to safeguard its existence, I was struck at how this pub seemed to be a genuine community local and what a shame it would be if it were to be lost however. By contrast, The Vulcan Hotel does not engender that similar warm feeling of empathy. It feels rather run down and, based on my visit, irrespective of the threat by developers, it comes across as a pub with limited appeal and whose days are numbered.

Blog of the campaign to save the Vulcan, includes link to petition - www.save-the-vulcan.blogspot.com

Blog of the campaign to save the Vulcan, includes link to petition - www.save-the-vulcan.blogspot.com

Sadly this historic spit and sawdust Brains pub is due to be demolished in June/July 2009. Yes there is sawdust on the floor most of the time and this pub is the oldest in Cardiff without a name change and has the oldest gents toilet in Cardiff. Visit it if you are going to the Welsh Beer Festival in Cardiff @ CIA it's just around the corner. Lively community pub, Darts, Quiz Night, great jukebox

Basic Brains Pub likely to be threatened by developers due to its proximity to the city centre