STREETS OF CARDIFF

The city of Cardiff experienced rapid growth during the nineteenth century as a result of the boom in the export of coal from the numerous collieries in South Wales. The wealth generated by this traffic, however, was not wholly beneficial to the city as the network of railway lines constructed to provide links between the collieries and the ports bequeathed to the city a number of low bridges, which were to affect adversely the network of tramway routes that developed from the late nineteenth century onwards.

Equally compromised, from their introduction in 1942, were the city’s trolleybuses. The Cardiff system was the penultimate one to open in Britain. Tramway operation in Cardiff lasted until early 1950 and the trolleybuses for a further 20 years. Thereafter, public transport in Cardiff, like elsewhere in the British Isles, was to be dominated by the diesel bus.

This book provides a pictorial tribute to the variety of public transport visible on the streets of Cardiff from the mid-1950s through to the mid-1970s, the era when colour photography was becoming popular. The photos and their informative captions both provide information about the bus or trolleybus featured, but also go further, as they explore the streetscape and note how the city has changed over the years. This will cause many to reflect on how the unique appearance of the place has been replaced by increasing uniformity of today’s urban landscape. 

Author: Roger Davies
Format: HB 95 pages
Publisher: Ian Allan Ltd
Pub date: 2006
ISBN 10: 0711030987
ISBN 13: 9780711030985

List Price: £14.99