The former Wyndham Hotel, Canton, Cardiff

I'm a bit fascinated by this building. It was a hotel according to the 1880 city planning map, but looking at the outline of the building and outhouses, and its location right on the edge of the city centre, it could well have been a coaching house as well. Towards the end of the 19th century it was the location for number of large property auctions.  

According to the 1901 map it was now being classed a public house, but still retaining the 'Hotel' bit in the name. There's a fantastic 1912 photo of the Wyndham and the rather Victorian Gothic Memorial Hall which stood on the side of the road (again looking at the maps, the Memorial Hall was demolished sometime between 1954 - 1965. The Angelou Centre is now located there).

It remained a pub until the late 80s, then it became a second hand furniture shop, and then an estate agents. It has been empty, except for a rather optimistic To Let sign, since the early 2000s.

With an increasing number of people finding themselves homeless in Cardiff, I was pleased that the delightfully named Goblin Liberation Front have moved themselves in and, in their words:

"The GLF, that’s Goblin Liberation Front, have squatted 4400 square feet of an otherwise wasted social space in the city centre. The building, liberated from a disintrested Gloucestrian tractor peddler worth several million, will now house a community owned cafe, theatre, meeting room, open office, bookshop/library, and games room. When the GLF entered in November the building was an empty space barely acknowledged and neglected, but we have started transforming it into a social centre owned by the people who use it, completely free of charge."

Good on them, and more power to their collective elbows!