Deteriorating toilets in Victorian cemetery could become café

Kieran Molloy, Local Democracy Reporter

“Deteriorating” toilets in a cemetery could become a café if new plans are approved for the site.

A proposal has been put forward to Cardiff Council to transform the former women’s toilets at the upper part of Cathays Cemetery in Heath into a café.

Planning documents outline a number of benefits for this change including delivering “clear public and community benefits” and representing a “sustainable reuse of two redundant buildings”.

The application reads: “The site is located within Cathays Cemetery, a Grade II-registered historic park and garden of high significance.”

It continues: “The cemetery is characterised by its Victorian layout, mature landscape structure, and associated listed buildings.

“The application buildings are small utilitarian additions to the site, which are currently vacant and in a deteriorating condition.”

The new café is proposed to include its own toilet facility as well as storage and an outdoor seating area.

The former convenience blocks are owned by the city council and, according to the planning documents, were last in use around 2003.

According to Historic Wales: “Cathays Cemetery is registered for its historic interest as a well-preserved large Victorian multi-denominational cemetery, retaining most of its original layout and ornamental evergreen planting.

“It contains some elaborate and interesting memorials dating from 1859 onwards.”

Because of this the design “adopts a conservation-led approach” retaining the existing structure and the “original character and materials”.

The application reads: “It is considered that the proposal respects the character of the site and avoids overcommercialisation through the modest footprint and sympathetic/minimal signage.”

Elsewhere it reads: “The toilet blocks have been out of beneficial use for ~25 years and currently lay redundant and dilapidated.

“To bring them back into public service would be at huge expense and maintenance costs to Cardiff Council, unless otherwise privately funded, as proposed.

“The proposal is for the reinstatement of one of the toilet blocks to be brought back into use for public convenience, providing an accessible WC as part of the scheme.”