page_title: Work of William Burges at Cardiff Castle
section_title: Landscape
hierarchical_section_title: Work of William Burges at Cardiff Castle / Victorian construction and reconstruction: Burges and Bute / Landscape
caption_attribution_description: Animal Wall, Cardiff, Wales, UK
context_page_description: From 1865 until his death in 1881 the Victorian architect William Burges undertook the reconstruction of Cardiff Castle for his patron, John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. The rebuilding saw the creation of some of the most significant Victorian interiors in Britain.
context_section_description: Until the 1850s, Bute Park, laid out on the site of five farms and known as Cooper's Fields, was open to the public. In 1858, Bute's mother gave Sophia Gardens to the city and Bute Park was closed and transformed into the private gardens for the castle. In the 1870s, using Andrew Pettigrew his head gardener at Mount Stuart House, Bute began the development of the gardens. Burges contributed three main elements; the Swiss Bridge, the Animal Wall and the stables. His original plan was for a pre-Raphaelite garden in the moat on the two sides of the Clock Tower facing the city. The Animal Wall provided the enclosing perimeter on the Castle Street frontage, while the Swiss Bridge gave Bute access directly from the Bute Tower into the castle park. The bridge was completed but in 1881 Burges died before the wall was anything more than a sketched plan. His assistant William Frame brought the idea to fruition, with the animal carving being undertaken by Burges' long-term sculptor Thomas Nicholls. Both structures were moved by Bute's son during developments in the 1920s and 1930s. The Animal Wall was placed in its current position at the end of Bute Park and was extended with additional sculptures by Alexander Carrick. The Swiss Bridge was moved to a new site below the Castle Mews. By the 1960s, the bridge was derelict, having suffered considerably from vandalism and Cardiff City Council had it broken up. The stables, of less interest to Bute, were built by Burges between 1868–1869 and were subsequently remodelled in the 1920s and reduced in scale by the removal of the pigeon tower in the 1960s.
caption: The bear on the Animal Wall
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