Historic Photography
Hotel de Marl (Between Ferry Road and the River Taff), Cardiff, 1893.
The Hotel de Marl was set up in an area of Grangetown, Cardiff by local men trying to evade the 1881 Sunday Closing Act, banning the sale of alcohol in Welsh pubs. The ‘hotel’ was actually a series of pits dug into the ground for drinking men to meet up in and drink on Sundays. These pits were considered legal after a court case ruled that they were a crude form of ‘gentlemen’s club’, therefore drinking was allowed within these types of club. Here the photo's caption reads, 'In Full Swig', as the men were busy drinking. The photograph was taken on Sunday 28 May 1893.
