Atlantic Wharf is a relatively new area of Cardiff, west of the East Bute dock, south of the Great Western railway line, east of Lloyd-George Avenue and North of Roath Basin. The area runs parallel to Butetown on the West side of the Queen Street to Cardiff Bay railway line.
It’s hard to believe now but Atlantic Wharf used to be a thriving docks area of South Cardiff that included West Bute and East Bute Docks. Exports included Timber, Coal and other general cargo.
The area “Atlantic Wharf” derives from a historic wharf that was located in the north west corner of the Bute East Dock where passage to America could be sought. The wharf is visible on maps from about 1900. In the 1880s, W. Y. Edwards ran fortnightly packet steamers to New York from the wharf, including the steamers Rhiwindda and the Rheola.
Built on the back of the industrial revolution of iron and coal and the evolution of the railways, the West Bute Dock was opened in conjunction with the newly developed Taff Vale Railway by the Second Marquis of Bute in 1839 and due to its restrictive size (200ft wide) was followed by the opening of the East Bute Dock in 1859. The two docks together with the Queen Alexander Dock and Roath Basin saw Cardiff become the biggest exporter of coal in the world.
However, just before and after the first World War trade began to dimmish, resulting in the complete loss of trade in the mid 1960’s due to the closure of the East Moors Steel Plant. This resulted in the closure of the West Bute Dock which was soon after in-filled, and the continual decline of the Cardiff Docks area as a whole. After decades of dereliction, the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was created in 1987 to stimulate redevelopment in the area that included the Cardiff Bay Barrage.
The only residential district Atlantic Wharf before the 1970’s was Newtown, a small district comprising of 200 houses, known to many as ‘Little Ireland’ due to its population of Irish families. Demolished in the 1960’s and early 70’s, the only remaining link to this area is the memorial to Newtown which can be seen next to the Ibis Budget Hotel on Tyndall Street.
Atlantic Wharf as we know it today saw its first development in the 1980’s, starting with the building of what was then the South Glamorgan County Council headquarters (now Cardiff Council, County Hall) when the bottom half of the dock was closed off from the sea.
Developments such as The Wharf public house on Schooner Way (now demolished) and the Atlantic Wharf Leisure Village (now Red Dragon Centre) created an attractive and thriving area to live, work and play.
Infrastructure such as the ‘canal’ (dock feeder) and Schooner Way supported the first phase of residential housing that included Llansannor, Celerity and Craiglee Drives, the Spillers and Bakers development, and Blake, Beaty, York and Beaufort Court, together with the former London and North Western Railway goods warehouse now known as the Novotel.
Later in the mid 1990’s, the southern end of Schooner Way was developed for residential housing. This was soon followed by Lloyd George Avenue in 2000, formerly known as Collingdon Road, an area which was consisted of light industrial units. Landscaped and redeveloped, Lloyd George Avenue now forms a mile-long ‘Gateway’ to Cardiff Bay. Finally, the area around the East Bute Dock and Alexander Dock was developed and now consists of modern larger scale apartment blocks.
Atlantic Wharf now consists of mixed use residential, leisure, hotels, and offices. The Wharf public house has been demolished and extremely large projects such as the 17,000-seater arena, hotel complex and Atlantic Wharf Masterplan are set to further transform the area in future years.
Only a few remnants of the original docks area remain. This includes the Oval Basin (Roald Dhal Plas), the top half of the East Bute Dock with a number of bonded warehouses, some remnants of the original dock feeder at the top end of Schooner Way, a number of original machinery items around Lloyd George Avenue, a crane on East Bute Dock and the original docks wall parallel to Bute Road.
The Silurian and Llansannor parkland traces the footprint on the West Bute Dock where the Edward England residential development at the corner of Lloyd George Avenue and Tyndall Street incorporates the original warehouses at the end of the dock.
