Victoria Park is a small Victorian urban public park in the Canton district of Cardiff. It is four-sided, lying on level ground bounded by roads in a residential area. It spans 19 acres (7.7ha) and was built in 1894-7 on land carved out of Ely Common. The park is four-sided and lies on level ground between Thomson Avenue in the north and Cowbridge Road in the south. The surrounding streets are residential. The park is laid out with winding tarmac paths, mown grass and informally planted trees. It is surrounded by iron railings, with gates at the entrances on the north and south sides, around the perimeter a belt of mixed, mainly deciduous, trees. The original layout as depicted on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (1920) is largely intact an ornamental lake with two fountains was converted to a paddling pool in the 1960s and more recently (2016) the paddling pool was removed and replaced with a splash pad.

The original intention was to establish a zoological collection in the park but nothing was done until 1900 when an 'aviary' was instigated. From 1901 a collection of animals grew, mainly through gifts. A Gardeners' Chronicle article of 3 March 1923 mentions the 'large area of water which is the home of many wild-fowl and a seal'. 'Billy the Seal', lived in the park from 1912-1939, and a sculpture was installed in the park in 1997.

At the north end of the park is a bowling green on the site of the earliest one in Cardiff. Nearby is a slightly raised grass circle, edged with stone, with a modern bandstand in the centre, the site of the former bandstand. Nearby is a statue of James Rice Buckley, former Vicar of Llandaff (32782). Near the park centre is a kidney-shaped paddling pool surrounded by low railings, a modern replacement for the original, larger, lake.

The south end of the park is more formal, with a circular arrangement of island beds and radiating paths, around the outside a circular path with geometric beds beyond. In the centre is a circular bed of bedding plants surrounded by low railings. In the middle of it stands an octagonal domed drinking fountain of elaborate cast ironwork (32841).

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan (ref: PGW(Gm)23(CDF).
Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch map of Glamorgan, sheet XLIII.14 (1900).

RCAHMW, 7 July 2022