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The 1830s-built pub is scheduled to reopen after it moved ten miles from brick to brick, complete with its 107-year-old urinals and original wallpaper.
- Vulcan Hotel was a much loved traditional working class boozer on the Cardiff docks
- Actor Rhys Ifans and singer James Dean Bradfield backed calls for him to be saved
- The owners have agreed to donate it to a museum ten miles away, where it is being rebuilt.
A popular pub will reopen after being moved ten miles from brick to brick, even with its 107-year-old urinals and original wallpaper.
The Vulcan Hotel was a traditional boozer well-loved by the working class before it was shut down over ten years ago.
Notting Hill actor Rhys Ifans and Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield have backed calls for the pub to be saved after having served generations of steel and dock workers in Cardiff.
Brains Brewery agreed to donate it to a museum ten miles away, and it is now being rebuilt to its original state.
The Vulcan Hotel was a traditional boozer well-loved by the working class before it was shut down over ten years ago.
The Brains brewery agreed to donate it to a museum ten miles away, and it is now being rebuilt in its original state at the National History Museum in St Fagans.
The popular bar, built to service Cardiff’s East Bute pier, will once again serve pints at the National History Museum in St Fagans when it reopens next year.
Museum workers disassembled the interiors and façade to store each item before putting it back together.
The building will reopen in 2024 and will feature the original men’s urinals dating from 1915, when it was renovated.
Dafydd William, Senior Curator of Historic Buildings at St Fagans, says the pub is steeped in history.
He said: ‘Pubs are very important cultural centres. They act as centers of community life. We have always wanted a pub in the museum.
“We were lucky enough to interview a woman who was born at The Vulcan in 1915.
“She told us what the building was like when she was a child, what kind of customers used it, and details about the community around it.”
The pub’s 107-year-old urinals are seen to be carefully stored before being rebuilt.
Notting Hill actor Rhys Ifans and Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield have backed calls for the pub to be saved after having served generations of steel and dock workers in Cardiff.
The builders painstakingly rebuilt the pub brick by brick at the National History Museum in St Fagans
The building will reopen in 2024 and will feature the original men’s urinals dating from 1915, when it was remodeled.
The Vulcan Hotel was originally built in the 1830s before being renovated in 1915 to present its distinctive façade.
Mr William said: ‘In 1915 Cardiff was a highly successful coal port. The year before, in 1914, Cardiff exported the largest amount of coal in history; about 20 million tons.
This was during the First World War. So the pub has a lot to say about this period in history, about Cardiff as a city and about the community that surrounds the building at that time.”
Some tiles on the outside of the pub were too damaged to save, but the original Shropshire-based manufacturer is still in business.
And in a happy twist of fate, the manufacturers still own the wooden molds used to create the original tiles.
A waitress chats with a customer inside the Vulcan Hotel when it was still a thriving pub.
The Vulcan Hotel was originally built in the 1830s before being renovated in 1915 to present its distinctive façade. In the image, the interior of the pub.
Mr. William said: ‘We commissioned a completely new set.
“We were tearing down a partition and behind the sheetrock was the original wallpaper. It was coarse grained and covered in a layer of nicotine.
The original 1915 men’s urinals have also survived. Now they are being restored so that they can come back inside, ready for their duty.
St Fagans is part of the National Museums of Wales and is home to over 40 historic buildings from across Wales.
Each structure has been disassembled, transported, and rebuilt on the museum grounds from pre-Roman times to the 20th century.
Museum workers disassembled the interiors and façade to store each item before putting it back together.
Old fashioned urinals shortly before they were dismantled from the old pub