Day 62: Praying for Tŷ-Gobaith, Cardiff (1935)

Join with Salvationists of the Wales Division for day 62 of 150 days of prayer.

• ‘I will be patient as I wait for God to help me. He is the only one who can make me safe’ (Psalm 62:1, EasyEnglish Bible). 

1935

This year a working men’s hostel was opened in Bute Street, Cardiff. The 9 March War Cry reported on this significant development. 

‘There was great rejoicing in Bute Street, Cardiff, on Saturday, over the latest men’s hostel in Great Britain and the first hostel to be opened in Wales by the Men’s Social Work of the Army.

‘Sir William Reardon Smith had been announced to preside but, in his absence, Mr. Popham took the chair and Mrs Richard Read declared the hostel open… After the opening all present were invited to inspect the white-tiled and modern equipped kitchen, bathroom and wash-house.

‘This, the sixtieth hostel, has many modern facilities and equipment for the comfort and convenience of men… Within a short time of the hostel being declared open, twenty men sought accommodation there.’

Forty years later the centre was rebuilt. The brochure from the official reopening on 23 January 1976 said:

‘Bute Street (Cardiff) is the fashionable nineteenth-century street which linked the old medieval town, dominated by the largely rebuilt castle, with the port end of the Glamorganshire canal. The street led for a mile southward to Lord Bute’s docks and to the commercial centre… 

‘The district was no longer fashionable when [in 1935] the Army took possession of the former offices of a flour mill to set up a men’s hostel… Technology has made its mark on society but basic human problems remain. The old converted flour mill office block has, through the years, enabled The Salvation Army to provide a place of shelter and succour to men facing crises.’

Bute Street Hostel refurbished and reopened in 2003, with a new name: Tŷ Gobaith. 

Prayer

• Pray for the staff and residents of Tŷ Gobaith (Hope House). Pray words of hope over those who find shelter and support in what is called a Lifehouse, a name that speaks of hope and new beginnings.
• Pray that those who find themselves in Tŷ Gobaith, irrespective of the reasons for them being there, will come to grasp hold of the hope that we find in Jesus.