Overlooked Britain
A castle for the world’s richest man
lucinda lambton When the Marquess of Bute met William Burges, they turned Cardiff Castle into a medieval, Welsh, Biblical fantasy Cardiff Castle is a sensational, superb, decorative triumph. The Roman and medieval castle was transformed by the 3rd Marquess of Bute (1847-1900) and his whizz-bang adviser and friend the architect William Burges. They created a town of towers – not a small town, either. Each tower is jam-packed with jewel-like rooms, ablaze with the rarest of architectural riches. As you cheer on their glories, I defy any of you readers to find a building of equal excitement, rarity and splendour. Gold shrieks at you from every wall, along with myriad architectural oddities inlaid into a variety of woods, often enhanced with a wealth of mother-ofpearl. A cockatoo twinkles with a tail and crest shining bright. An armless and bespurred lion boasts a long, motherof-pearl tongue. Lord Bute was only 18 when he first met Burges. Bute’s coal fortune was said to make him the richest man in the world. Together, Bute and Burges created brilliantly eclectic architectural schemes. Both were raging romantics, obsessed with medievalism and craftsmanship. Every room is encrusted with rich and intricate decoration, designed with serious scholarship, yet riddled through with veins of humour that make you laugh out loud with delight at the good fun on show. The clocktower, begun in 1869, is a study in the theme of time. Outside, figures representing the planets flank its four gilded faces. After you’ve toiled up 101 steps to the Summer Smoking Room, its riches burst upon you. It is a room as gay as it is lively; as colourful as it is light; all shone over by a great gilded Apollo on the chandelier, with the rays of the sun beneath him. This gleaming room represents the universe, with a map of the world in silver, copper and bronze in the centre of the floor, surrounded by tiles of man, mammals, birds and fish. The god of love, with a lovebird on each wrist, sits on the handsome hood of the fireplace, above a frieze of romantic 84 The Oldie January 2022
Above: Cardiff Castle’s south gate Left: a bear clambers over the Animal Wall
summer pastimes. The eight winds of Greek mythology act as corbels over a great tiled frieze of legends of the zodiac. So much for the Summer Room’s splendours. Now for the wonders of the Winter Smoking Room (pictured), which glow away at the bottom of the tower. Plunge in and you pass under the grotesque head of Typhon – representing chaos – his ivory fangs at the ready. Tiptoe over the Hounds of Hell inset into a mosaic floor and you are surrounded by shining walnut and boxwood panelling, with mythological creatures set a-shining with mother-of-pearl. The door itself is inlaid with entrancing musical animals: a mouse
beating a drum and a parrot reading a score. Burges particularly admired this bird, describing its ‘great intelligence’. The door handle is adorned with the same decorative bird; many more perch and fly all over the castle’s walls, floors and ceilings. The massive fireplace is stupendous, as indeed are all of them; each a beautiful little building in its own right. The Smoking Room’s was hewn from Forest of Dean stone in a single block, brought to Cardiff and carved on the spot. Under the Latin words by Virgil, meaning ‘Love conquers all and let us yield to love’, the pleasures of winter are paraded above the fire. Great hounds lie at the hearth,
