UK Roads: Cardiff Inner Ring Road

Just been reading some of your pages - great site.

Picking up on an item in 'Ring Roads' regarding the Cardiff inner-ring road. No such luck I'm afraid regarding Churchill Way. To explain: Originally Churchill Way comprised two parallel roads Edwards Terrace and Pembroke Terrace divided by the Cardiff Docks feeder which abstracted water from the River Taff at Blackweir and passed through Bute Park, under Kingsway along the back of Greyfriars Road, parallel to Park Lane and under the Park Hotel (now a Thistle Hotel and re-named) and out between the two terraces before entering a siphon to pass under Bute Terrace and the parallel railway line and then into the docks beyond ensuring the docks were always full of water as the difference in high and low water would be up to 15m (50ft).

In 1948, a young child fell into the waters of the feeder while playing in one of the terraces and a very brave young constable, Ken Farrow dived in to try and save her despite the possibility of being drawn into the siphon himself. The child unfortunately drowned but he was able to get out and for his bravery was awarded the George Cross (see here for the full story). I worked with Ken when he was in the highways department of Mid Glamorgan County Council but knew nothing of his story until later.

So that no further occurrences could happen again, the city fathers covered the feeder over and making use of the space created Churchill Way. It was never used as a dual carriageway, just a lot of 45° (echelon) parking both sides and single file traffic each way. However, in the 1960's Colin Buchanan proposed a box distributor road around the commercial centre of the city (a mini-peripherique style road - ugh) but it never included Churchill Way as part of it.

The 'inner' ring road that exists follows the approximate line of the Colin Buchanan proposal being (clockwise): Castle Street/Kingsway/Boulevard de Nantes/Stuttgart Strasse/Dumfries Place/Newport Road/Fitzalan Place/Adam Street/Bute Terrace/Tresillian Way/St Mary Street/Westgate Street and back to Castle Street. The road numbering is not straightforward but is A4161/A470/A4161/U/C/A4160/A470/U/C and back to A4161.

Philip Lord, Essex County Council, 1st June 04