THE NEW FLEURS
Portmanmoor Road
I don’t usually include clubs in Pubocalypse, but I will make an exception for the Fleurs in Splott. An integral part of working-class Splott’s culture and social life since it opened after WW2 as Splott Non Political Club in an empty house on the Portmanmoor Road/Walker Road corner, it became Fleur’s when acquired by local woman Fleur Sullivan in the 1950s and then was expanded, modernised and renamed The New Fleurs when bought by the Furnish family in the 1960s. With legendary Dai and Mo Furnish at the helm, the New Fleurs survived the demolition of the rest of Portmanmoor Road and nearly all of its Lower Splott catchment area in the late 60s and early 70s before riding out the devastating 1978 closure of the virtually adjacent Dowlais/GKN Steelworks that had been Splott’s raison d’être. Despite all this it thrived as a community asset. The big function room upstairs hosted countless events and it was the HQ of numerous sports teams, most notably Bridgend Street FC – a successful soccer club currently in tier three of the Welsh pyramid, named after the Bridgend Street Mission in Lower Splott where the club had been founded in 1899. After the Furnish family retired in 2003, Phil and Debbie James took over and continued the good work. But, being a social amenity and a labour of love rather than a here-today-gone-tomorrow cash cow, nobody with the necessary money could be found to take over the Fleurs when they too retired this year. The building was snapped up by a Housing Association and Cardiff Council quickly nodded through its demolition. Another body blow has been inflicted on what little remains of the threadbare social fabric of Splott. The message is clear: cease mixing with actual people, stay at home and stare at algorithms on a screen. The Fleurs, one of my favourite haunts, is to be replaced by a mediocre block of flats in which, you can be sure, few if any of the tenants will be a Cardiffian. This story encapsulates all that is so very wrong about Cardiff today: a cruel, brutalised hell-hole run by rightwing bastards who care nothing for its people, its history, its character, its environment, its health, its public realm and its social nexus.

Following the closure of the Fleurs, here (in chronological order of opening) is the updated position of the pubs and clubs of Splott/Tremorfa (KEY: ‡ still open, c club):

‡ THE COTTAGE, Sanquhar Street (1870-)
THE RUPERRA ARMS, Ordell Street (1875-2000)
THE LORD WIMBORNE, Portmanmoor Road (1885-1970)
THE CARDIFF ARMS, Railway Street (1890-2010)
THE GROSVENOR, South Park Road (1893-2008)
‡c SPLOTT CONSERVATIVE CLUB, Habershon Street (1895-)
THE MOORLAND, Moorland Road (1896-2004)
c SPLOTT LABOUR CLUB, Aberdovey Street (1929-2012)
c PENGAM MOORS SOCIAL (aka THE SHED), Seawall Road (1929-2019)
c SPLOTT WELFARE (aka THE BOMB & DAGGER), Portmanmoor Road (1930-1969)
c THE NEW FLEURS, Portmanmoor Road (1949-2024)
THE OLD AIRPORT, Pengam Road (1961-2006)
c THE OCEAN CLUB, Rover Way (1963-2005)
‡c ST ALBANS RFC, Tremorfa Park (1970-)
‡c OLD ILLTYDIANS, Splott Road (1985-)
‡ THE OCEAN PARK, Ocean Way (1996-)

To provide a comprehensive catalogue of every Splott pub one should include the entire area east of the Taff Vale Railway as far as the Nant Fawr (Roath Brook) and south of Newport Road/Broadway as far as the coast. These are the pubs of Adamsdown, which was part of Splott until being made a separate ward in 1890:

THE VULCAN¹, Adam Street (1853-2012)
THE PRINCE OF WALES, Adam Street (1853-1935)
THE GREAT EASTERN², Metal Street (1858-2003)
THE SANDON, Adam Street (1858-1962)
THE EAGLE, Davis Street (1858-1967)
‡ THE CLIFTON, Clifton Street (1859-)
THE RHYMNEY/RUMPOLES, Windsor Road (1859-1986/1987-2007)
THE MOIRA, Moira Terrace (1859-1999)
THE ADAMSDOWN/THE NEW ADDIE, Meteor Street (1867-2011)
THE TREDEGAR, Pearl Street (1870-2006)
THE LOCOMOTIVE, Broadway (1872-2006)
THE NEW DOCK, Broadway (1875-2009)
THE BERTRAM, Broadway (1875-2014)
THE SPLOTLANDS, Meteor Street (1883-2014)
THE CANADIAN, Pearl Street (1890-2015)
THE WHITE LION, John (renamed Nora) Street (1890-1914)
‡ THE ROYAL OAK, Broadway (1890-)

Newtown, built between 1850 and 1855 on either side of the Great Western Railway, was initially considered part of the ‘Splotlands’ of Cardiff’s East Moors before being allocated to Adamsdown in 1890. The pubs in the northern part of Newtown are included in the Adamsdown section above. These³ are the Newtown pubs south of the GWR (the entire area was eradicated by the Council in 1966 and today is part of Butetown):

THE CROWN & SCEPTRE, Pendoylan Street (1856-1929)
THE ROYAL GEORGE, Thomas (renamed Roland) Street (1857-1947)
THE CRICHTON ARMS (aka FITZY’S), Tyndall Street (1857-1964)
THE HOWARD, Tyndall Street (1861-1912)
THE CAMBRIDGE, Tyndall Street (1862-1912)
THE EAST DOCK, Tyndall Street (1863-1934)
THE GREEN FIELDS OF ERIN, Ellen Street (1863-1928)
THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH, Ellen Street (1866-1953)
THE LORD RAGLAN, Ellen Street (1870-1950)

NOTES
¹Reconstructed at the National History Museum in Sain Ffagan and reopened for visitors in 2024
²Originally Upper Splott Farm
³Some of the opening/closure dates given are approximations based on logical deductions from the limited available information; corrections welcomed