Volume Six - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - Select Aspects - The subway under the river Ely story . . .

The Demise of the River Ely Subway . .

	The tolls for using the subway were collected until shortly after the GWR closed the docks in 1936 when there were only about 50 users per day. The subway was reopened a few years later when war broke out and was used as an air raid shelter. Then the Americans arrived and it was back in service until closure in September 1963 when it was finally bricked up at each side of the river.
	In 1976 the subway at the Penarth Dock end was excavated and about 75m of the cast iron lining was recovered and relocated to a scrap yard. Following this, the subway was flooded to prevent "casual use" or, to be used as a reservoir for the oil terminal, "in the event of fire", the report surmises.

The toll house on the same side was demolished c.1969 although on the northern side it remained for some time but in a derelict condition.

The survey of the subway by Brian Colquhoun & Partners . . .

The consulting engineers were contracted in November 1989 to produce a report for the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation to investigate the condition of the subway with a view to reopening as a pedestrian link between Penarth Haven and the proposed Ferry Road redevelopment. The subway was pumped out and surveyed in April 1991 and it was found that the ingress of water was minimal. A summary of the findings confirms that despite some deterioration and rust of the cast iron linings the subway was generally found to be a good condition. Proposals for a new access building and upgrading of the subway services etc. were estimated to cost just over £1m, but this was considered too expensive and the project was never realised.