42 Thackeray/Quill and Quote (formerly Sir Henry Morgan)

History

The ‘Quill and Quote’ occupies what was once a large private house called ‘Oakland’, constructed between the OS maps of 1886 (surveyed 1875-81) and 1901 (1898-99).

Earliest newspaper reference to the house comes in June 1888, occupied by ‘Mr Joseph Heald, Railway Wagon Builder.’ 

In January 1895, the property was advertised to let:

‘Excellent residence (named Oakland) to Let, situated on Rumney Hill, one acre of ground; stabling laundry &c; entrance from Newport Road; the ground borders the River Rumney.’

In September 1898, the property and its contents were put up for sale by Mr Morgan Morgan, advertised as featuring Dining Room, Breakfast Room, Drawing Room, Hall, Seven Bedrooms, Kitchen, Sculleries, Stables and large grounds.

The property was occupied by the Christie family in 1905; Mr Charles William Christie (of Messrs Christie & Co. Shipowners) died there on 18 March 1905.

The OS map of 1919 (surveyed 1916) provides first detailed plan of the building, set within a deep plot between Newport Road and the River Rumney, and encompassing half of the former Roman Camp of ‘Cae Castell’. There are a number of extensions to the rear and a wrap-around glazed veranda to the front. The stable is presumably that building to the southern boundary behind the house – the extant stable building attached to the north seemingly belonged to neighbouring ‘Tredelerch’.

By 1941, the extensions to front and back appear to have been altered and the stable block is lost. Later again, the property is operating as a Surgery and, by the end of the C20, the road to the rear (Castle Rise) passes through, and the site of the old Roman Camp is built upon.

It is currently unclear when the property became a bar and restaurant (and when the large rear extension was added), but it was the ‘Buccaneer’ in June 2008, which became ‘The Sir Henry Morgan’ between 2008 and 2011. The property became ‘Thackeray Restaurant Bar and Grill’ in 2017.

Description

A substantial building prominently located upon raised ground above Newport Road. Set back from the road within a generous plot, it has a garden to the fore (containing mature trees) and large car park to the rear.

The principal portion of the building is almost square plan, with three storeys. Pitched and slated roofs (with hips and gables), polychromatic brick chimney stacks, two-storey faceted bay windows, timber sashes and a wrap-around veranda all define its later-Victorian character. Rendered and painted throughout.

There is a substantial later-C20 single-story extension to the rear of no great character, which abuts the two-storey former stable block to the north (seemingly still in separate ownership).

Reason

A fine exemplar of a substantial and prominently located later-Victorian villa with many original features still intact externally.

Aesthetic and Historical Value.

More recent use as a public house (then restaurant) imparts limited Communal Value.

References

None found

Additional images

1898 to 1899, Published 1901. Glamorgan Sheet XLIII.NE