Gyfieithu i'r Cymraeg
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Cathays (pronounced Cattayz) is a district in the north of Cardiff. It is an old suburb of Cardiff established in 1875. It is very densely populated and contains many older terraced houses giving it a Victorian era atmosphere.
The etymology of the name "Cathays" is uncertain, but it is unrelated to Cathay, an old word for China. A suggested etymology is 'stronghold within the enclosure' from Old Welsh cadeir 'battle, stronghold)' and Old English (ge)hæg 'enclosure.' It is believed that "Cathays" seems to derive from the old Welsh for "battlefield"; although no evidence of any battle is known on the site, the name is fairly old and may be pre-Roman in origin. Many of the roads in the area are named after farms that existed there before urbanisation, Allensbank and Wedal are two examples.
Originally farmland outside the old Cardiff Castle, the northern limit of mediaeval Cardiff was marked by the cross where Fairoak Road and Crwys Road now meet.
After John Stuart, 1st Marquis of Bute married The Hon. Charlotte Hickman-Windsor (daughter of the 2nd Viscount Windsor) on 12 November 1766, he inherited lands in Cathays which lay to the north of his existing Bute Estate. He then purchased other properties and farms to extended his land further north and east, including Cathays Park. There he built Cathays House at a cost of £40,000 and at further cost landscaped Cathays Park. But after John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute took over the title, he preferred to use Cardiff Castle as his residence, so choose to demolished the house in 1815 and turned Cathays Park into an enclosed parkland.
Following the 2nd Marquis development of Cardiff Docks, and the resultant number of new workers flocking to Cardiff, in 1875 the then rural Cathays became a suburb of Cardiff. At that time a few streets lead off Woodville Road and Cathays Terrace, but during the next 25 years the urbanisation of Cathays was virtually completed. Only Allensbank and Wedal farms survived, but by 1914 they also became no more than local place names.
Established as a new and clean overflow area from Butetown for workers in Cardiff and going to the docks, in 1860 the United Kingdom's first mosque was recorded by the Register of Religious Sites (now maintained by the Office of National Statistics), at 2 Glynrhondda Street as a registered place of worship, founded by Yemani sailors on their trips between Aden and Cardiff. It is still a registered and working mosque today under the title of the Al-Manar Islamic & Cultural Centre.
Maindy Barracks was opened in 1871, and with United States Army troops temporarily stationed in transit in Cardiff during both World War 1 and World War 2, the footpath between Gelligaer Street and New Zealand Road resultantly became known as "BURMA Road" (Be Undressed and Ready My Angel), as they came to meet prostitutes.
The area of Cathays is probably best known today by locals for the disproportionately high number of students living in the locality, given its proximity to most of Cardiff University's teaching sites and University Hospital of Wales. Cathays railway station is sited next to the Students' Union building, with the approach tracks running underneath the building itself, and right behind the neighbouring Sherman Theatre. With the student demand, the proximity to the city centre and major roads in and out of Cardiff, demand for housing is extremely high.
Despite the urbanisation of Cathays, many acres of parkland still exist around the civic centre, including Gorsedd Gardens, Queen Alexandra Gardens, Bute Park and Blackweir.
