The Golden Cross

About

The Golden Cross is the tiled pub on the corner of Customhouse Street and Hayes Bridge Road, and part of the reason to go is the building. There has been a pub on the site since 1849. The present one was rebuilt in 1903 and 1904, listed Grade II in 1975, and survived a road-widening scheme four years later. Inside are pictorial tile panels showing Cardiff Castle and the old town hall, grotesques on the corners of the bar, and a ceramic bar counter, one of roughly fourteen left in the country.

It has been a gay pub since the 1970s and calls itself the oldest LGBT+ venue in Wales. The entertainment is drag, cabaret and karaoke on a small floor rather than a club stage, and there is a beer garden behind that the pub describes as a secret away from the city.

The pub changed hands at the start of 2026 and is now run alongside two pubs in Bristol. It describes itself as a community hub open to all rather than a bar for one crowd, and the mix on a quiet afternoon is noticeably wider than the drag nights suggest.