Angel Hotel, Cardiff

The Angel Hotel is a hotel on a prominent corner of Castle Street/Westgate Street in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. For much of its existence it was one of the major hotels in the town/city, visited by celebrities and prime ministers.

It is claimed the Angel Hotel existed in Cardiff since 1666 but certainly from the 18th century when it was located opposite the gates of Cardiff Castle, a short distance from its current location, on what was then called Angel Street. From around 1782 it was run by John Bradley, from a family who made their money from horse racing. Bradley was also postmaster and mail contractor for Cardiff. The Angel Hotel was the destination for the daily mail coach from London and Bristol.

A century later the road in front of Cardiff Castle needed widening. A new hotel was built at the end of the street to replace the Angel Hotel and the old Cardiff Arms Hotel (which had been demolished). The plot was purchased by the Cardiff Corporation from the Marquess of Bute for a nominal sum and the new hotel, "designed by Mr C. J. Jackson" in an 'English Renaissance' style, was built by Jackson's company entirely from red bricks made by the Bute Estate Brickworks at a total cost of over £20,000. It was fully decorated, furnished and ready for guests by July 1883. The new hotel logo, used for the hotel signs and crockery, was designed by the Marquess of Bute, referring to the two previous hotels by combining an angel holding the Cardiff coat of arms.

The new building located its large portico entrance at the prominent corner of the site. The hotel had 76 bedrooms, bars, a billiard room and a full height hexagonal hall filling the interior with daylight via a glass lantern rooflight. Its principal space, the grand coffee room on the first floor commanded splendid views of the surrounding countryside "that very few even of the residents of Cardiff can have any idea that a building in the coal Metropolis of Wales commands a prospect of such varied beauty". It led onto a balcony above the portico intended to be used by the local Member of Parliament to "address his constituents when he has to return thanks for being elected".

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