Cardiff Central railway station

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Cardiff Central railway station

This station opened in 1850, when the South Wales Railway (SWR) launched its route from Gloucester to Swansea. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the engineer. Cardiff’s earlier railways ran north-south, conveying coal to the docks. For its station in Cardiff, the SWR built an embankment between the river Taff and the Glamorganshire Canal. The main canal wharves were east of the station site, along with a newly built Custom House.

Photo of Cardiff General station
© National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

In 1849 Brunel diverted the river Taff to its present course west of the station. This created a site long enough for the station on the east-west axis, and protected the site from flooding. In 1851, Cardiff’s town clerk was instructed to “write to Mr Brunel pointing out the nuisance and injurious effects to the Public Health, arising from the old bed of the river Taff”. Land where the river once flowed was set aside for sport, and now hosts the Principality Stadium and Cardiff Arms Park.

The SWR was amalgamated in 1863 with the Great Western Railway, which built the current station buildings from 1932 to 1934. The GWR lobbied successfully for the demolition of Temperance Town, the workers’ housing north of the station, to improve the view from the station approach. The company’s name is still written across the station frontage.

The upper photo shows the platforms before the rebuilding, with parcels vans on both sides and a water column to replenish locomotives in the foreground.

The aerial photo, courtesy of the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales, shows the station in 1933, with the concourse building under construction to the left and Temperance Town still extant. It is from the Aerofilms Collection of the National Monuments Record of Wales.

Aerial photo of Cardiff General station in 1933
Cardiff General station in 1933, courtesy of the RCAHMW and its Coflein website

Notable details from the 1930s rebuild include the cupola with its large clock, also the wall tiles (with hands pointing from the subway to the platforms). The Art Deco lamps in the booking hall are replicas of the originals, installed in 1999 with funding from the Railway Heritage Trust. A GWR war memorial is displayed at east end of the concourse.

The GWR called the station Cardiff General. British Rail renamed it Cardiff Central in 1973.  

Another station, Cardiff Riverside, was immediately to the south, where a track diverged towards the docks (visible on the right in the aerial photo). It was demolished in the 1990s, after decades of use as a parcels and newspaper terminal.

Today Cardiff Central is Wales’ busiest station. With the decline of heavy industry and the growth of offices in Cardiff, the balance has shifted from freight to passenger trains. Platform 0 was created in 1999 on the station’s north side. Platform 8 came into use in late 2016, complemented by a modern entrance building facing the regenerated area south of the station. In January 2020 Network Rail completed electrification of the main line into the station from the east, with overhead wires supplying 25kV to trains.

Postcode: CF10 1EP    View Location Map

Website of Science & Society Picture Library - prints available of the 1922 photo above, and many others

Copies of the old photo and other images are available from the RCAHMW. Contact: nmr.wales@rcahmw.gov.uk