If buildings could talk, Vulcan in Cardiff would certainly have some stories. The old downtown watering hole has been a favorite of Hollywood actors, musicians, students, miners and factory workers. But it’s a minor miracle that it survived.
Despite a years-long rescue campaign led by local residents and former drinkers, including Rhys Ifans and members of the Manic Street Preachers, the last orders were taken on 2 May 2012. The new owners planned to turn the site into a car park. and was dismantled. But last weekend, almost 12 years later, it reopened in a completely new location.
“We had to go there in 2012 – we were really worried about trophy hunters – so we boarded it up and four weeks later we started dismantling it brick by brick,” explains Janet Wilding, head of St Fagans National’s historic buildings unit. History Museum on the outskirts of Cardiff.
Although the campaign was unsuccessful in saving the Vulcan in its original home, it persuaded the building’s owners to offer to donate it to St Fagans. Wilding’s team, which specializes in relocating historic buildings in Wales, were looking for a pub to add to its collection, which already includes shops, a farmhouse, a post office and a church, among others.
“One of the first questions when we rebuild a building is the interpretative date of when we want to restore it,” Wilding explains as he shows me around the reopened bar, which is now located in a corner of the St Fagans site. “We knew from the beginning that we wanted to take the Vulcan back to 1915, when it first became a pub and had just completed a major refurbishment.”
Vulcan was originally built in 1853 as a pair of terraced houses. From the outside you can still see its two front doors. In its original form, it housed about 25 people; New Town, where it once stood, was developed to accommodate Irish workers hired by the Marquess of Bute to build the new East Bute dock. It was condemned as a slum and there was significant anti-Irish sentiment among the local population.
It reopened as a pub in 1915: the Vulcan Hotel (although there is no evidence that it ever entertained guests) – named after the Roman god of blacksmithing due to its proximity to a local metalworks. This institution, run by the McCarthy family, quickly became an institution.
“The remainder of the area around Vulcan was demolished in 1966, making the pub one of the last surviving buildings of that community,” explains Dafydd Wiliam, St Fagans’ chief curator of historic buildings.
While Wilding and his team tried to move the foundations, it was up to Wiliam to resurrect Vulcan’s spirit.
“We were able to interview Ellen McCarthy, the daughter of the 1915 homeowner, who provided invaluable information,” Wiliam explains. “He was born here so he could tell us what he looked like growing up and life in New Town.”
A small wooden partition creates a room to the right of the bar with enough room for two or three drinkers to stand. It was discovered during disassembly by Wilding’s team, covered in plywood, but it matched something McCarthy had mentioned to Wiliam.
“When she was a child, women were not allowed to drink with men, so they were isolated behind this partition,” Wiliam enthuses. “This is completely original.” Of course, this is just for show; Women and men can drink together.
Dismantling and rebuilding the bar was a logistical challenge for Wilding. All the glass was removed in sequence, walls were dismantled brick by brick and a large Victorian ceramic urinal had to be carefully removed.
Not everything could be saved. The tiles on the exterior of the bar could not be moved. “We had the tile conservators do an assessment and they quoted us more than anything and they couldn’t guarantee that any tile set in cement would survive,” says Wilding.
But tile experts still helped. “Among the ones we were able to remove, we found that each had the name of the company that made them: Craven Dunnill Jackfield, who was able to re-do the flooring for us,” explains Wilding. “They had kept the original molds so we were able to commission new molds that were exactly the same as the old ones. It works well because when we reset the bar in 1915, the tiles would have been brand new, too.”
Wilding estimates that about 90 percent of the rebuilt Vulcan is original. A few bricks were lost in the move, floorboards had to be replaced, and 1980s furniture was replaced with period-related alternatives from the museum stores.
What impresses me is the love and attention to detail. These new floorboards were reclaimed from a whiskey distillery to maintain the boozy theme. The paving stones in the kitchen at the back of the building are the same ones Ellen McCarthy used to play on. You can even find sawdust all over the floor, a traditional feature of Welsh pubs in industrial areas.
“Most of the men were working around the dust and soot, and they would have a glass of drink partly to clear their throats,” Wiliam explains. “There are a few spittoons around, they must be spitting on the ground too, hence the sawdust.” Maybe it’s a good job they replaced the floorboards…
Most importantly, local people were affected. “The attention to detail is something else,” enthuses Simon Martin, who visited The Vulcan before it closed and popped into the reopened bar to check out the beers supplied by Glamorgan Brewery, who have created a Vulcan Ale.
Another detail I like is the circles on the windows. They were decorated for Brain’s Brewery when I visited in 2012, but they’ve redone them to pay homage to WW Nell, the brewery who supplied the beer in 1915.
“The rebuilding took a while but you see why,” adds St Fagans volunteer Nick Jones, who worked opposite Vulcan in the late 1980s, and recalls going in every Friday after work. “We would visit because the food was exciting; “It was next to a slaughterhouse so it was very fresh.”
Jones unfortunately thinks the food is off the menu for now, but he doesn’t think that’s caused the bar to lose its luster. “I think the tiles on the outside of the building give it a sense of grandeur that people still appreciate; Look at everyone taking selfies outside. It’s great what they do. “It’s a different feeling, but it’s still an amazing place.”
I sit back and enjoy my surroundings as I prepare to drink a delicious Vulcan Beer. Pubs have changed since these doors first opened. Vulcan went through the same transformations. He has now returned to his roots.
Five more buildings were rebuilt brick by brick
St Fagans is a treasure trove of reconstructed old buildings. In its new home, The Vulcan sits alongside a cluster of shops and a working men’s club; both appeared in a 2007 episode of Doctor Who set in the 1910s, thanks to its period accuracy. But you don’t need to go to Wales to see old buildings being moved to a new location.
Frauenkirche, Dresden, Germany
Destroyed during the Allied firebombing of Dresden in World War II, this magnificent dome-roofed Lutheran church was rebuilt between 1994 and 2006 using original materials preserved as a war memorial.
Clavell Tower, Dorset
Built in 1830 by the Reverend John Richards Clavell of Smedmore House as an observatory and folly on Hen Cliff just east of Kimmeridge Bay, this Venetian-style tower was threatened by coastal erosion. Before the cliffs below collapsed into the sea, The Landmark Trust took it apart, brick by brick, and reassembled it further inland.
Old London Bridge, Arizona USA
Work on the redesign and widening of the arches of the original London Bridge was completed in 1824. But the new bridge only lasted a century before it was replaced by the existing concrete and steel bridge. The old bridge was dismantled and purchased by Robert P McCulloch, a property developer; so he moved everything to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it survives to this day.
Abu Simbel, Aswan, Egypt
Pharaoh II in Egypt. Two huge temples carved into the rock in honor of Ramesses, BC. It had been immovable since the 13th century. However, the rising waters of Lake Nasser, formed by the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1959, threatened to submerge it. A team of experts cut the monuments into 30-ton blocks and moved them to a new home that will be open to visitors.
Carlton Tavern, London
Unlike The Vulcan, The Carlton Tavern managed to remain in its Maida Vale location even after developers demolished half of the building in 2015. Following a campaign by local loyalists, Westminster City Council ruled that appropriate planning permission had not been obtained; everything was rebuilt. The bar reopened in 2021 and has been serving customers ever since.