Iconic Cardiff pub The Vulcan reopens after brick-by-brick rebuild 12 years on from demolition

Video report by reporter Hamish Auskerry and producer Beth Thomas, who had a sneak peak inside The Vulcan before it opens to the public. Additional reporting by journalist Shivangi Pandey.

Almost exactly 12 years after the last pint was pulled, one of Cardiff's oldest and most iconic pubs has finally reopened - in a different postcode and a different century.

No, The Vulcan has not had too much to drink. The reopening of this iconic pub is thanks to an incredible historical and architectural project which aimed to protect a piece of Welsh boozing heritage.

The Vulcan was originally built at 10 Adam Street in Cardiff around 180 years ago, when there were fewer than 30,000 people living across the whole city.

There on that spot stood The Vulcan while the community then known as Newtown grew exponentially to match the growth of the Cardiff docks.

Dafydd Wiliam, principal curator of historic buildings at St Fagans National Museum of History, explained: "Back then the population of Newtown was predominantly Irish because firstly they were here to build the Bute East dock, and secondly another tranche came over to escape the famine, so it has an amazing history."

The Vulcan was one of several pubs along Adam Street, with the Wheat Sheaf just a few doors down while the Forester's Arms was on the other side of the street.

Eventually, Cardiff Council designated Newtown as a slum and decided to demolish the area during the 1960s and 1970s. The communities which lived there moved to other parts of Cardiff, and the relationship between The Vulcan and its surrounding population changed.

The pub eventually became financially unviable for its landlords and owners. Thousands of people signed a petition to save The Vulcan from closure during a campaign which lasted four years from 2008. The campaign successfully delayed the closure, but only temporarily.

Gwyn and Sandra Lewis were the final landlords of the pub between 2010 and 2012. They were there as the final pints were pulled through the taps.

Now, with the pub rebuilt, they were able to step back inside for the first time in 12 years.

"It looks bigger than what it used to be!" Gwyn said as he walked in.

"It smells different, it's a lot cleaner," Sandra added.

And no wonder it looked and smelled different to how they remembered it, as The Vulcan has been rebuilt exactly as it would have been in 1915, at the height of Newtown's population growth.

Sandra and Gwyn's happy memories here are much more recent, ranging from the sawdust on the floor to the days where hundreds of rugby fans would spend the day at the pub during international weekends.

Gwyn remembered: "We'd have been people knocking at the windows at 8.30am all the way from London or west Wales.

"We'd sell a couple of hundred rolls and we'd have someone in the cellar so we could bang on the floor and say 'change the bitter or change the SA!'"

"I think everyone has their memories of their little slot in The Vulcan, whether that's the '60s, '70s, '80s, etc," Sandra said.

"There were a lot of old regulars who have a lot of memories of this place. Anyone could walk in and feel safe.

"From the outside it could look intimidating, but everyone was welcome in The Vulcan. We never had any trouble while we were here and there were very nice people, all with different stories."

Gwyn agrees, saying: "We had so many characters in here! Not just the regulars who had been here for years and years, but also we had a lot of students in because we were across the road from University of South Wales.

"They would bring their musical instruments in - we would have harps and guitars and even bagpipes one night! I don't think that atmosphere could be recreated."

When The Vulcan was demolished in 2012, it was done so with incredible care and attention to detail.

Every brick, window pane and door frame was numbered, mapped, and copious notes taken while The Vulcan was kept in storage for seven years.

When we visited the building site of the pub at its new site in St Fagans in January 2020, just the foundations and some of the walls were standing. The original window panes were going back in and the shape of a pub was beginning to be revealed.

Dafydd Wiliam said: "It's been a long road. We took it down in 2012, but we started rebuilding five years ago. Then we had two years of lockdown when you could only have two builders working at a time. But we've caught up and we're very very pleased with the result."

Dafydd says the iconic frontage of The Vulcan was established in 1915 and hasn't changed since, but the inside has.

"We have architectural plans for how it was laid out in 1915 so we can recreate the inside accurately for that time.

"We also have oral history from people who can tell us about the kinds of artwork that was on the walls, what some of the customers of the pub were like, and what life was like in Cardiff at that time".

But for all the amazing history, there is now an exciting future for this pub: a future that in the dark days of the late 2000s did not look likely when it looked likely the pub would be demolished in a traditional sense and left in the past.

Hayley Budd has the enviable job of being The Vulcan's new landlady and she's relishing the task ahead.

"You must have the best job in Wales now?" we ask her.

"Surely it is!" Hayley said. "I was so excited when I saw the job advert come out so I'm so pleased to be here now.

"It's one of those things that I look forward to so much and maybe in the future if there is a plaque somewhere that names all the former landlords and ladies of The Vulcan - maybe my name will be on there".

When was The Vulcan built?

The Vulcan was first registered as an "alehouse" in 1853 and was called The Vulcan Inn.

It had two small, terraced houses which were later revamped into one larger building.

It offered lodgings on the first floor, which is also where the landlord and their family lived.

After significant remodelling in 1914-1915, its name was changed to The Vulcan Hotel.

• Where did it get its name from?

The name came from the Roman god of fire and metalworking known as Vulcan.

He was often depicted as a blacksmith. As there were no iron foundries near The Vulcan Hotel at an early date, according to Museum Wales, the first licensee may have had a close association with metalworking and could have named the pub to reflect this connection.

• What is it like inside The Vulcan?

During 1915, men working from the docks, railways and nearby industries drank in the main bar.

There were no tables or chairs inside The Vulcan, and there was sawdust on the floor.

Couples used to drink in a place called the "smoke room" and others stood in the passage and were served through a hatch.

A small booth called the "jug and bottle" allowed customers to bring their own jugs and bottles and buy beer to drink at home.

The original bar counter was removed in the 1940s and successive bars were much smaller, to make room for more customers.

In later years, playing darts was very popular, and The Vulcan became a regular place for musicians, poets, and authors.

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