The American Roller Rink, Westgate Street, Cardiff, 1908

Description

The American Roller Rink, a massive corrugated iron structure in Westgate Street, Cardiff, adjacent to the General Post Office, was opened in 1908. Over the years, thousands of Cardiffians came to the rink to learn how to waltz on roller skates to the music of a brass band. It also played host to a number of other sporting and political events: it was here that the Cardiff-born boxer 'Peerless Jim Driscoll (1880-1925) fought Freddy Welsh (1886-1927) in front of a 10,000 crowd, and it was also the venue for a number of political meetings, addressed by both Herbert Henry Asquith and David Lloyd George in their time. The Roller Rink was eventually dismantled after the First World War, and re-erected in Mill Road, Ely, where it was used for the construction of concrete panels for houses in Caerau Square.