Morgan Arcade, Cardiff, by Edwin Seward

Morgan Arcade

Edwin Seward (1853-1924)

1896, completed 1898

Between St Mary Street and The Hayes, Cardiff

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Cardiff prides itself on its series of Victorian and Edwardian shopping arcades. Two of the most splendid are the interlinked Royal and Morgan Arcades, the Royal Arcade having been the first fruit of the Cardiff Arcade Co, established in 1858 for the specific purpose of linking The Hayes and St Mary Street. It was Cardiff’s first indoor shopping arcade.

Photograph by kind permission of Robin Drayton, who first contributed it to the Geograph Britain and Ireland site, where it is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Licence.

Caption and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee.

David Morgan (1833-1919) became a director of the company in 1892, and after opening a store in The Hayes, commissioned what was first called the New Central Arcade to run parallel to it, opening another store in St Mary Street in 1898 (see "History"). John Newman describes the new arcade's façade as being "in a fussy Jacobean classical style" (214), but the interior is very fine, with its glazed roof curving away sinuously, and its attractive upper oriels. The literary and cultural critic and philosopher Walter Benjamin considered arcades to be a highly significant form of architecture, heralding a new era of technological, cultural and social change (see Jennie Savage), though it is doubtful whether they were as important an architectural form as the railway station, its concourse and train sheds — the influence of the train sheds being particularly clear in the Morgan Arcade. Seward was also commissioned to design the centrepiece of the David Morgan store, which was to become the largest independent department store in the country. The store front and both arcades were sold to a property investment company in 2005, but have all been handsomely maintained.

References

David Morgan, Ltd. Department Store, Cardiff Records (Cardiff Archives). Web. 9 April 2011.

Newman, John. Glamorgan (The Buildings of Wales series). London: Penguin, 1995.

Savage, Jennie. The Arcades Project. Web. 9 April 2011.

Last modified 21 October 2015