The bear on Cardiff’s animal wall
Cardiff’s famous animal wall stands in front of Bute Park, alongside the castle, and you will always find tourists taking pictures of it with their mobile phones.
I caught sight of the animals with their glass eyes glinting in bright sunshine on my way to the Country Fair at the end of September. Although I had my camera with me at the time I didn’t stop and it took many weeks before I managed to find another sunny day to go back.
Approaching the animal wall – in shade
It had to be the right time of day, too, as tall buildings opposite the wall block out the sun most of the time. I figure it may be possible to use the passage of the window of sunlight along the wall to tell the time, like a sundial. At the end of September 10am was the right time to get some good shots but the weeks passed, the sun sank lower in the sky and the clocks went back an hour to GMT for the winter.
The wall from the other direction, heading out of town, away from the castle and over Canton Bridge…
So I had no idea what time of day was best and just decided one lunchtime in a busy mid-November week to carve out an hour to visit the wall. It was a cold day but the light was pale and golden.
I took pictures of every animal, looking at them properly for the first time. Later I learned several things I didn’t know about the wall, so I will share them with you here.
A postcard from around 1890, when the animal wall was new and stood in front of the castle – the entire wall and the iron gate were later moved to join on to the end of the castle, on the left
The wall was designed by the great Victorian castle designer William Burges in 1866 but he didn’t live to see it built as he died in 1881 and it didn’t see the light of day until 1890. His work was continued by his assistant William Frame, famous as designer of the magnificent red Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay.
Originally the wall had just nine sculptures, designed by Thomas Nicholls. They are a hyena, wolf, a pair of apes, seal, bear, lioness, lynx, and two lions. Wikipedia says these were painted in natural colours, although I see no evidence of this in the old photograph above. Any paint has certainly been removed now.
The whole wall was moved 50 metres in 1922, to allow widening of the road in front of the castle. Since then it has stood in front of Bute Park, named after the 3rd Marquess of Bute, John Crichton-Stuart, a famous Victorian philanthropist whose family lived at the castle.
Thomas Nicholls’ creatures, which became damaged over the decades, were repaired and had their glass eyes replaced in 2010. And here they are…
Hyena by Thomas Nicholls
The animals look as if they are escaping over the wall…
Wolf by Thomas Nicholls
Look closely at the wolf’s ear – full of harlequin ladybirds, an invasive species here in the UK…
No wonder the wolf looks so annoyed…
A longer view of Thomas Nicholls’wolf
The apes by Thomas Nicholls on the animal wall
Ape in profile
Did you notice the remains of autumn leaves in the ape’s mouth?
Thomas Nicholls’ seal
The old stone animals are coated in lichen…
Magnificent lioness at the castle end of the wall
The lioness looks great from all angles
…and what wonderful paws…
Lynx by Thomas Nicholls
The lynx is almost sphinx-like…
As the lynx is on a corner, you can view it with shops and hotels behind it…
Finally a pair of lions flank the iron gate to the side of the castle…
The lion on the right was less shaded…
…and beautifully cross-eyed…
In 1931 six more sculptures were added, carved by Alexander Carrick. These are a pelican, ant-eater, a pair of raccoons, leopard, beaver and vulture. These are more stylised than the original beasts and lack the glass eyes. Here they are…
Pelican by Alexander Carrick
Ant-eater – not surprisingly its nose has broken off several times and has been replaced…
A pair of raccoons by Alexander Carrick…
The raccoons have a certain Disney charm to them…
Leopard by Alexander Carrick
Beaver by Alexander Carrick
Carrick’s vulture
By the time I had snapped the last animal my ungloved hands were freezing, but there was still time for just a couple of shots of the castle itself…
Cardiff Castle today…
How different the castle entrance would have been with the animal wall in front of it…
Shiny! The low autumn sun reflects off the windows of the castle’s most ornate tower…
The Squirrelbasket 
What magnificent animals. I especially like the Thomas Nicholls ones with the glass eyes.
Yes, I prefer those, too. I just wish I had taken the pictures on that earlier day when I had seen them with really bright sunshine twinkling in their eyes. Very realistic though, aren’t they?
What wonderful animal sculptures to be seen and to photograph. I especially like the pictures that had the backdrop of autumn leaves behind them.
Yes, I thought the golden leaves added something, too…
It’s now December and we still have lots of yellow leaves on the trees – mainly maple in my garden. Only a handful of green ash leaves left…
I’m sure autumn all happened a LOT earlier last year!
Best wishes 🙂
Lovely close-ups of the animals. i was in Cardiff 2 weeks ago and the castle was looking lovely, all wrapped in a “ribbon” made of blue lights.
Yes, the Christmas lights in Cardiff are very good this year. The last few years it has been ALL white and blue and people have found it a bit “cold”. But this year they have added some lovely big red stars to the shopping streets, too.
Shiny!
All the best 🙂