History
The property was built in 1874 by the wealthy Marquess of Bute — the man who commissioned the first of the great docks, which transformed the Cardiff from a sleepy town into a modern, prosperous city — the biggest and most prosperous coal port in the world.
He commisioned the house for his Chief Engineer, John McConnochie, who later became Mayor of Cardiff. It was intended to be a house of lavish entertainment.
It was designed by the famed architect, William Burges, one of the leading exponents of the Gothic Revival in the nineteenth century — who would seemingly have approved its current usage.
Of great historical and architectural interest, the building is now Grade 1 listed and is described by Cadw as 'perhaps the most important 19th century house in Wales.'
'There are some people who consider medieval art as eminently ecclesiastical and therefore profoundly serious to be approached with caution, forgetting that mankind has been very much the same in every age and that our ancestors joked and laughed as much as we do.'
— William Burges 1827—1881
