The Ely Subway is a disused pedestrian tunnel beneath the mouth of the River Ely in South Wales.
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Opened in 1900, it provided a direct connection between Penarth Dock and Grangetown until its closure in 1963.
The Ely Subway is a disused pedestrian tunnel beneath the mouth of the River Ely in South Wales.
Opened in 1900, it provided a direct connection between Penarth Dock and Grangetown until its closure in 1963.
Penarth Dock opened in 1865 on the southern edge of Cardiff Bay, at the mouth of the Ely. However, the nearest crossing over the river was a road bridge nearly a mile upstream at Llandough. [1] The operators of the dock, the Taff Vale Railway Company, introduced a chain ferry across to the northern bank of the Ely as a shortcut for both their workers (many of whom lived in Grangetown) and members of the public. However, the ferry was unable to run in bad weather—even sinking twice during storms—and as the docks continued to develop in importance a permanent crossing was considered necessary. [2]
The company submitted a bill to Parliament in 1896 seeking permission for a number of new works, one of which was a tunnel beneath the river to replace the ferry. Construction began in July 1897 on a subway designed by George Sibbering, the company's chief engineer, with works overseen by Thomas Taylor, a contractor from Pontypridd. The ramped entrances at either end were dug by hand but the majority of the route—325 yards of the subway's total length of 400 yards—was tunneled with a Greathead shield, of the same design used for the Central London Railway. The northern entrance was located at the southern end of Ferry Road in Grangetown (next to some large petroleum storage tanks owned by the Bear Creek Oil Company), while the southern entrance was next to the dockside Mission Church. [2]
The tunneling process was slow and difficult. The ground was largely a loose mixture of mud, gravel, and clay, and the cast-iron tunnel—only 11 feet below the river bed at its deepest point—was subjected to intense differentials in pressure between high and low tides in the bay above. [1] The tunnel flooded twice during construction, in November 1897 and December 1898, although workers were able to evacuate both times without any loss of life. [2] Tunneling finished on 25 September 1899, and a ceremony was held to mark the subway's official opening on 14 May 1900. [3] The total cost of construction was between £25,000 and £26,000. [4]
The subway had a diameter of 10 feet 6 inches, with a usable footpath 6 feet wide, and 7 feet 6 inches of headroom. The tunnel ramped downwards relatively steeply from both entrances to its halfway point, with a gradient of 1 in 7. The interior was painted with a mixture of white enamel and granulated cork to prevent condensation, and lit with electric bulbs. [5] Toll keepers oversaw turnstiles at either entrance, charging pedestrians a penny for entry, cyclists two pence, and prams four pence; horses also reportedly used the subway. [6] It also carried gas and water pipes, and hydraulic lines for coal-loading machinery in the docks, while water leaking in from outside the tunnel was pumped away through drains in the floor. [7] A burst pipe on 4 August 1902 caused a flood and led to the subway's temporary closure. [8]
The subway was officially decommissioned in 1936 as part of the wider closure of Penarth Dock, and the toll keepers were removed, but it nevertheless remained open to pedestrians. It was repurposed as an air raid shelter during the Second World War when the docks were requisitioned for the U.S. Navy. [7]
After the war the subway remained accessible to the public but increasingly fell into disrepair, and it gained a reputation for vandalism and petty crime. [6] It was eventually closed and boarded up in 1963 as part of the wider decommissioning of Penarth Dock; the entrances were then bricked up in 1965. It continued to be used as a conduit for power cables by the South Wales Electricity Board until 1976, when part of the Penarth entrance was demolished and some of the cast iron tunnel sections were removed. [7] [9]
The demolished southern entrance was sealed over in the 1980s as part of the redevelopment of Penarth Dock into Penarth Marina—the site is now Plas Pamir, a residential road. The bricked-up northern entrance is located within the grounds of Cardiff Bay Yacht Club.
The tunnel is not actively maintained, but (other than the damage to the southern entrance) remains intact. [6] It was inspected in 1991 during the construction of the Cardiff Bay Barrage and found to be in good condition. However, renovating and reopening it was ultimately not pursued in favour of building Pont Y Werin—a brand new footbridge around half a kilometre upstream—instead. [5] [7] [10]
A commemorative mural of the subway, painted by local artists Peaceful Progress, can be found at the southern end of Pont Y Werin. [11]
The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stages in 1840 and 1841.
Cardiff Bay is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of water was converted into a 500-acre (2.0 km2) lake as part of a UK Government redevelopment project, involving the damming of the rivers by the Cardiff Bay Barrage in 1999. The barrage impounds the rivers from the Severn Estuary, providing flood defence and the creation of a permanent non-tidal high water lake with limited access to the sea, serving as a core feature of the redevelopment of the area in the 1990s.
Penarth is a town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay.
Grangetown railway station is a railway station serving the Grangetown district of Cardiff, Wales. It is located on the Vale of Glamorgan Line 1 mile (1.5 km) south west of Cardiff Central towards Bridgend via Barry, Penarth and Barry Island.
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Pontypridd railway station serves the town of Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It is located at the junction of the Merthyr line and the Rhondda line and has for many years been the only station serving the town.
Cadoxton railway station is a railway station serving Cadoxton and Palmerstown near Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is located on the Barry Branch 6½ miles (10 km) south of Cardiff Central. The line continues to the terminus of the Barry Branch at Barry Island but from Barry Junction the line also continues as the Vale of Glamorgan branch to Bridgend via Rhoose for Cardiff International Airport bus link and then Llantwit Major.
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Grangetown is a district and community in the south of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is one of the largest districts in the south of the city and is bordered by Riverside, Canton and Butetown. The River Taff winds its way through the area. Adjacent to the city's Cardiff Bay area, Grangetown is experiencing a period of gentrification and improvements in its infrastructure. Its population as of 2011 was 19,385 in 8,261 households. One of the "five towns of Cardiff", the others are Butetown, Crockherbtown, Newtown and Temperance Town.
Transport in Cardiff, capital and most populous city in Wales involves road, rail, bus, water and air. It is a major city of the United Kingdom and a centre of employment, government, retail, business, culture, media, sport and higher education.
The A4232, which is also known either as the Peripheral Distributor Road (PDR) (Welsh: Ffordd Ddosbarthu Ymylol) or the Cardiff Link Road (Welsh: Ffordd Gyswllt Caerdydd), is a distributor road in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.
The River Ely is in South Wales flowing generally southeast, from Tonyrefail to Cardiff.
Cardiff International Sports Village is located in Cardiff Bay in the city of Cardiff, Wales. It is one of the largest regeneration projects currently in the UK and is a public-private funded project.
Penarth Dock was a port and harbour which was located on the south bank of the mouth of the River Ely, at Penarth, Glamorgan, Wales. It opened in 1865 and reached its heyday before World War I, after which followed a slow decline until closed in 1963. The site has since been redeveloped to become Penarth Marina, which now opens into Cardiff Bay.
Pont y Werin is a pedestrian and cyclist bridge spanning the River Ely between Cardiff Bay and Penarth, Wales.
Cycling in Cardiff, capital of Wales, is facilitated by its easy gradients and large parks. In the mid-2000s between 2.7% and 4.3% of people commuted to work by cycling in the city. In 2017 12.4% of workers cycled to work at least 5 days a week. However, cyclists in the city are deterred from cycling by poor facilities and aggressive traffic, according to research by Cardiff University.
Rail transport in Cardiff has developed to provide connections to many other major cities in the United Kingdom, and to provide an urban rail network for the city and its commuter towns in southeast Wales. Today, there are three train operating companies in Cardiff: Great Western Railway, CrossCountry and Transport for Wales.
Wenvoe Tunnel is a disused tunnel on the defunct Barry Railway that runs under Culverhouse Cross in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales, on the western outskirts of Cardiff. It was opened in 1889 on a line used to carry coal to Barry Docks. The line also had a sparse passenger service and closed after March 1963.