THE HISTORY OF CARDIFF'S SUBURBS

CYNCOED
Incorporating Lakeside and Roath Park

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Farms and Woodland

A century ago Cyncoed Road was still an ancient track leading from Penylan to Lisvane. The road was bordered by farms, a few dwelling houses and extensive areas of woodland.

In 1887, the 3rd Marquis of Bute and other landowners offered 121 acres of marshland, free of charge, to provide the Cardiff Corporation a park with a lake, pleasure gardens and playing fields.

This development became Roath Park, which was opened by the Marquis during the Summer of 1894.

Roath Park and the Scott Lighthouse

Soon trams were travelling to Roath Park from every part of Cardiff and boating on the lake became a special attraction as it still is.

The memorial lighthouse was dedicated in 1915 to the memory of Captain Scott, who on board the ship 'Terra Nova', set out from Cardiff in June 1910 in an (ultimately failed) attempt to reach the South Pole.

MAGNIFY — Map of Cyncoed in 1922.
Source: OS

mapofcyncoed_1922 — Map of Cyncoed in 1922.
Source: OS

The views overlooking Roath Park soon attracted property developers who constructed luxurious houses in Lake Road East and Westmany of which were occupied by coal exporters at the time.

A number of dwellings were built in Cefn Coed Road before 1914 and standing among them is the original farm house. The building dates back to the early 18th century.

Post War Developments

It was after World War One that the landscape around Cyncoed Road began to change, when high-quality houses were built on former farmland.

For those residents who still wanted to spend time in the less built up area of the suburb, there were a number of sporting facilities to make use of.

The Cardiff Golf Club occupied a large area of land to the north, and The Cyncoed Tennis Club, which has since moved to the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (now Cardiff Metropolitan University since 2011) site on Cyncoed Road.

During World War Two there was a US army base in the area and during the build-up to D-Day, it was a familiar sight to see hundreds of Sherman tanks trundling along Cyncoed Road.

In the 1950's the rural nature of Cyncoed vanished forever, when the demand for new homes led to more of the dwindling countryside being redeveloped into the Lakeside estate, centered around Celyn Avenue.

Centre of Education

Lakeside Primary School was built in Ontario Way and Cardiff High School (used to be called 'Ty Celyn') was built on the site of Celyn Farm.

The Cardiff College of Education opened in 1961 to meet the demand for more teachers and is now one of the sites used by UWIC.

Various courses are taught at Cyncoed but its fame stems from the PE department, which over the years has produced some of Cardiff's most famous sporting heroes; including Lynn Davies (Long Jump), Steve Watkin and Greg Thomas (Cricketers), Dai Davies (Goalkeeper), Clive Griffiths and Gareth Edwards (Rugby) were just some of the students at Cyncoed.