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One of the features of Cardiff City Centre is a series of animal sculptures on the wall of Bute Park. There are 15 altogether (a lioness, two lions, raccoons and baboons are the others). It now stands to the west of the entrance to Cardiff Castle, having been moved from its original position in front of the castle in 1922 when the road was widened. The design for the wall was conceived by William Burges, architect to the third Marquess of Bute, during Burges's reconstruction of the castle in the 1860s, but it was not executed until the late 1880s/early 1890s. This work, which included the original nine animal sculptures, all undertaken by Burges's favourite sculptor, Thomas Nicholls, was carried out under the direction of William Frame, who had previously assisted Burges at both Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch. When the wall was moved, the fourth Marquess commissioned Alexander Carrick to carve a further six sculptures to sit on the extended wall which now fronted Bute Park in 1931. The Animal Wall is a Grade I listed structure. Above the top five are by Nicholls, the bottom five by Carrick. The animals were originally painted in naturalistic colours, although this paintwork deteriorated rapidly, and was subsequently removed.
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