Save The Laundry!

Poor Stu.

No sooner had I cooked him breakfast (of scrambled eggs in fried open cup mushrooms) then his phone goes and he is summoned into work to cover for a stylist who had phoned in sick. On a Sunday of all days - the only day we really get together. He was not happy but grudgingly agreed to go in. I said I'd drive him down to the salon; being yet another glorious day, I thought a cuppa in the Waterloo Gardens Teahouse next door to the salon would slip down a treat.

So, with an Orange and Lemon Rooibos tea and a slice of pistachio and rose cake, I settled back to read a bit more of Patrick Dillon's The Much Lamented Death of Madame Geneva. Then I noticed on the counter a flyer entitled 'SAVE THE OLD LAUNDRY'. Upon reading this I realised it referred to the large Victorian building on Marlborough Road in Penylan, with Blenheim Road running alongside it.

Ever since moving to this area in 2004 I had always been fascinated by this large, red-brick, industrial looking building (at that time being used as a carpet and flooring showroom) and quite unable to fathom what its original purpose was. It looked like it was once some kind of factory, but the ornate entrance was rather confusing. The large area surrounding it, contained within a brick-walled perimeter, also contained a number of outhouses.

Apparently it was built in 1898 as a laundry for the expanding suburbs of Roath and Penylan, whose residents needed somewhere to get their dirties cleaned. Being a product of the Victorian era explained the elaborate entrance. It was originally surrounded on three sides by fields; something that didn't last long once the building of the terraces and Marlborough Road school started in earnest. The laundry fell into disrepair in the 1920s and has been for many years a retail showroom.

And now it has been purchased for demolition and for retirement homes to be built on the site. Which is all well and good I suppose but it would be a real shame for yet another part of Cardiff history to vanish. The flyer I picked up was from the campaign to save the existing building and to use it for another purpose, such as an arts centre (which would be brilliant - right on my doorstep!). But I can't see that happening somehow.

So I set myself a mission for the morning - to take pictures of the Old Laundry before it disappeared forever. It was great light for photography and the sky was blue enough to contrast with the red brick of the building. It was also kinda sad too, knowing that this intriguing survivor of the Victorian era would soon be condemned to dust. But I guess that's the nature of cities - any available space will end up being built upon and this acre of land must be gold in property developers eyes. At least this won't end up as another Tesco, Starbucks or bloody Greggs.

Anyway, here are the pics I took on that Sunday morning while my poor partner worked his wonder on waiting wigs*.

And here are a couple of related links: Save The Old Laundry Facebook page and an excellent blog entry by Peter Finch on the Old Laundry, which proved a great source of information about the building.

*He doesn't actually do anything with wigs, but the alliteration in that sentence was too hard to resist!