the Vulcan

[Rock_Flock_of_Five]

It’s probably me looking through rose tinted spectacles, but I don’t recall many of those pubs you mention disappearing because of a lack of customers, it was more down to the developers. The Vulcan was a bit off the beaten track for me when I went drinking in town and I assumed its location worked against it getting regular customers, but I can remember going there on a Friday night a year or two before it closed and was surprised by the number of people in there.

I think you're right, the location of the Vulcan wasn't great, it was in a bit of a "no man's land".

There was a new-build pub further on, just past the fire station, I think it was called "Rumpoles' or something very similar? Now THAT really was an odd place to decide to build a pub. I don't think it was ever anywhere near busy, not even on a Friday or Saturday night. Given that it was directly opposite Cardiff prison, I wonder how many inmates used to look out of their cell window and think to themselves..."As soon as I'm released, that's going to be the first place I visit!"

[tforturton]

There was a new-build pub further on, just past the fire station, I think it was called "Rumpoles' [/I]

There was a pub on that spot before Rumpoles was built, but I can't recall the name - a big old place. I do remember that apart from the bar and 'lounge', it had a little off-licence room with a counter and a wooden bench seat. The toilets were outside, across the back yard, in a corrugated iron shed. If it was raining, you had to dash through the puddles, and the noise inside was deafening, with the rain hammering on the roof. I can remember on a Sunday afternoon, you'd get all the wives and girlfriends of the prison inmates gathering there after visiting time. They used to stand across from the pub, and lift their tops to the guys leaning out of the prison windows. It did happen - I saw it more than once.
I guess that must have been knocked down around 1983 or 84, something like that, and the awful Rumpoles built a few years later.
It wasn't a bad spot - Courts, fire station, prison, Howard Gardens arts college - I bet they did alright.

[goats]

I think you're right, the location of the Vulcan wasn't great, it was in a bit of a "no man's land".

There was a new-build pub further on, just past the fire station, I think it was called "Rumpoles' or something very similar? Now THAT really was an odd place to decide to build a pub. I don't think it was ever anywhere near busy, not even on a Friday or Saturday night. Given that it was directly opposite Cardiff prison, I wonder how many inmates used to look out of their cell window and think to themselves..."As soon as I'm released, that's going to be the first place I visit!"

Apparently that is actually true….probably why it was always dead and now gone. Enough pubs in Adamsdown and splott gone anyway without another soulless one vying for business….