The North Gate
1 .
2
1. Reconstruction drawing of Cardiff's Northgate.......... 2. 18th Century print of same (source: Cardiff City Library)
This gate was also known as ‘Senghennydd Gate’ or ‘Sentry Gate’ and was illustrated in several versions by Sandby in 1775/6. Its external appearance was in many respects reminiscent of that of the West Gate. A more or less square gate tower with four breastwork sections and a single pointed archway, of similar dimensions as its western counterpart. It too held a double leafed gate. However, this is where the similarities end. In the eastern entrance to Cardiff’s St. David’s shopping center are three large display panels. One of them holds an excellent enlargement of one of the above mentioned prints. It allows a clear view through the archway of North Gate and displays the back of the gate tower. Two arches are visible in the background and the wall between them suggests a vaulted ceiling. The left arch seems to take the roadway straight through the building, while the right arch appears to lead onto something not visible.
In contrast to the arrangement at the West Gate building, whose outside walls were flush with the adjoining town wall, the curtain wall between the North Gate and the Castle wall did not join the gate tower flush at its outer corner; North Gate protruded from the town wall. The latter either was connected somewhere along the side of the building, or at the rear corner. The juncture certainly left a recess of a least half the gate tower’s width, which seems to have been taken up by a rounded wall; this was slightly higher than the tower’s wall. It would be conceivable that the rounded section contained a spiral staircase to the top of the gate tower. The illustration also shows some damage to both the tower building and the curtain wall where they were joined. A staircase on this side of the tower could also explain the single buttress on the western corner of the building. The separate sentry house to the left of the gate hides the joint between the town wall and the gate tower on that side. However, one may assume that it was similar to the one on the opposite side, but without the rounded structure as proposed in figure 2b. Like the West Gate, North Gate does not appear to have had an upper storey either unless, again, it was a timber superstructure. Not long after Sandby’s print was published, North Gate was demolished (49) to make room for the increasing traffic and the Glamorganshire Canal. The canal necessitated the building of a raised bridge in front of the gate tower, which added to the hindrance the gate building itself had become to traffic flow. The minutes of the Council of 5th May 1786 record "Ordered that the North Gate of the said Town be pulled down and the side wall repaired" (50).