Cardiff, Cardiff

Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities.

Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed capital of Wales in 1955.

In 1766, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute married into the Herbert family and was later created Baron Cardiff.

By the 1881 census, Cardiff had overtaken both Merthyr and Swansea to become the largest town in Wales. Cardiff's new status as the premier town in South Wales was confirmed when it was chosen as the site of the University College South Wales and Monmouthshire in 1893.

Esys Consulting Ltd, Evaluation of Regeneration in Cardiff Bay. A report for the Welsh Assembly Government, December 2004 In the 1999 devolution referendum, Cardiff voters rejected the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales by 55.4% to 44.2% on a 47% turnout, which Denis Balsom partly ascribed to a general preference in Cardiff and some other parts of Wales for a 'British' rather than exclusively 'Welsh' identity. Balsom, Denis. 'The referendum result'. In Jones, James Barry; Balsom, Denis (ed.), The road to the National Assembly for Wales . Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000.

Further local government restructuring in 1996 resulted in Cardiff city's district council becoming a unitary authority, the City and County of Cardiff, with the addition of Creigiau and Pentyrch.

The executive and civil servants of the Welsh Assembly Government are based in Cardiff's Cathays Park while the Assembly Members, the Assembly Parliamentary Service and Ministerial support staff are based in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff elects four constituency Assembly Members (AMs) to the Assembly, with the individual constituencies for the Assembly being the same as for the UK Parliament. All of the city's residents have an extra vote for the South Wales Central region which increases proportionality to the Assembly. The most recent Welsh Assembly elections were held on 3 May 2007.

Many of these Triassic rocks have a purple complexion, especially the coastal marl found near Penarth. One of the Triassic rocks used in Cardiff is "Radyr Stone", a freestone which as it name suggests is quarried in the Radyr district. Cardiff has also imported some materials for buildings: Devonian sandstones (the Old Red Sandstone) from the Brecon Beacons has been used. Most famously, the buildings of Cathays Park, the civic centre in the centre of the city, are built of Portland stone which was imported from Dorset. A widely used building stone in Cardiff is the surreal yellow-grey Liassic limestone rock of the Vale of Glamorgan, including the very rare "Sutton Stone", a conglomerate of lias limestone and carboniferous limestone that is, apart from Radyr Stone, the only free-stone in south-east Wales (freestones can be cut to a perfectly smooth surface).

The River Taff winds through the centre of the city and together with the River Ely flows into the freshwater lake of Cardiff Bay. A third river, the Rhymney flows through the east of the city entering directly into the Severn Estuary.

The Glamorgan coast is the only part of the Celtic Sea that has exposed Jurassic (blue lias) geology. This west facing stretch of coast, which takes the brunt of brutal Atlantic westerlies and has reefs, sandbanks and serrated cliffs aplenty (like Cornwall) was a ship graveyard during the age of sail; ships sailing up to Cardiff during the industrial era often never made it as far as Cardiff as most were wrecked around this hostile coastline during brutal west/south-westerly gales. Consequently, just like its Celtic cousin in Cornwall, smuggling, deliberate shipwrecking and attacks on ships became a way of life for many people living in the small coastal villages of the Vale.

Culverhouse Cross is a more affluent western area of the city. Radyr, Llandaff, Llandaff North, Whitchurch & Tongwynlais, Rhiwbina, Heath, Llanishen, Lisvane, and Cyncoed which lie in an arc from the north west to the north east of the centre can be considered the main middle class suburbs of the city. In particular, Cyncoed, Radyr and Lisvane contain some of the most expensive housing in Wales. Further to the east lie the wards of Pontprennau & Old St Mellons, Rumney, Pentwyn, Llanrumney and Trowbridge. The latter three are again largely of public housing stock, although new private housing is being built in Trowbridge in considerable number. Pontprennau is the newest 'suburb' of Cardiff, whilst Old St Mellons has a history going back to the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.

More specifically Cardiff has an oceanic climate, with prevailing winds blowing in from the south-west over the Atlantic Ocean.

Pointer, Graham, The UKs major urban areas , Focus on People and Migration , 2005, retrieved 2008-06-12 Official estimates derived from the census regarding the city's total population have been disputed. The city council has published two articles that argue the 2001 census seriously under reports the population of Cardiff and, in particular, the ethnic minority population of some inner city areas.

The economy of Cardiff and adjacent areas makes up nearly 20% of Welsh GDP and 40% of the citys workforce are daily in-commuters from the surrounding south Wales area.

This was first achieved by the construction of a long canal from Merthyr (510 feet above sea-level) to the Taff Estuary at Cardiff.

This sector, combined with the Public Administration, Education and Health sectors, have accounted for around 75% of Cardiff's economic growth since 1991.

Mary's Street, with large suburban retail parks located in Cardiff Bay, Culverhouse Cross, Newport Road and Pontprennau, together with markets in the city centre, Splott and Leckwith. Cardiff is also home to the oldest record shop in the world in Spillers Records, which was established in 1894.

It features the only Olympic-size swimming pool in Wales, the Cardiff International Pool, which opened on 12 January 2008.

A prominent future landmark in Cardiff Bay, Bay Pointe which is set to include Wales' tallest building, has been granted planning permission.

Mary's Street. The National History Museum at St Fagans in Cardiff is a large open air museum housing dozens of buildings from throughout Welsh history that have been moved to the site in Cardiff.

The New Theatre was founded in 1906 and completely refurbished in the 1980s. Until the opening of the Wales Millennium Centre in 2004, it was the premier venue in Wales for touring theatre and dance companies. Other venues which are popular for concerts and sporting events include Cardiff International Arena, St David's Hall and the Millennium Stadium.

The current castle is an elaborately decorated Victorian folly designed by Burges for the Marquess and built in the 1870s. However, the Victorian castle stands on the footings of a much older medieval castle possibly built by Ifor Bach, a regional baron with links to Cardiff Castle also. The exterior has become a popular location for film and television productions.

The Vikings—who controlled the Bristol Channel—used Cardiff as a raiding base, a port and a trading post. Many street-names in Cardiff are of Viking origin including Dumballs Road and the oldest street in the city, Womanby Street (Womanby Street is a corruption of the original Norse name Humandaby Street). The conquest of Glamorgan by Robert Fitzhamon brought an influx of Norman-French influence. Welsh was the majority language in Cardiff from the 13th century until the city's explosive growth in the Victorian era.

The intermingling of the Irish, together with migrants from the West Country, the Midlands and rural Mid Wales is credited with having formed the distinctive flat-vowelled "Cardiff accent" (Roots to Cardiff exhibition, 2007). By 1891 the percentage of Welsh speakers had dropped to 27.9% and only Lisvane, Llanedeyrn and Creigiau remained as majority Welsh-speaking communities. The Welsh language became grouped around a small cluster of chapels and churches, the most notable of which is Tabernacl in the city centre, one of four UK churches chosen to hold official services to commemorate the new millennium. Following the establishment of the city's first Welsh School (Ysgol Gymraeg Bryntaf) in the 1950s, Welsh has slowly regained some ground.

One study has found that Cardiff has speakers of at least 94 languages, with Somali, Urdu, Bengali and Arabic being the most commonly spoken foreign languages.

The annual Cardiff Festival claims to be the UK's largest free outdoor festival, attracting over 250,000 visitors in 2007.

The city also hosts smaller events such as The Cardiff Design Festival, which began showcasing the best of Welsh design during the summer of 2005, and has since grown into a diverse range of designers exhibiting their work. Cardiff also hosts the Sn festival, a multiple venue music festival organised by BBC Radio 1 DJ Huw Stevens.

Other popular parks include Roath Park in the north, donated to the city by the 3rd Marquess of Bute in 1887 and which includes a very popular boating lake; Victoria Park, Cardiff's first official park; and Thompson's Park, formerly home to an aviary removed in the 1970s.

It is the home to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Welsh National Opera. It has produced several leading acts itself and, as a capital city, has acted as a springboard for numerous Welsh bands to go and become famous both nationally and internationally. Acts who hail from Cardiff include Charlotte Church, Shirley Bassey, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals, The Oppressed, Kids In Glass Houses, Los Campesinos, The Hot Puppies, Pagan Wanderer Lu, Budgie, and Shakin' Stevens. Also, performers such as The Automatic, Jem, Funeral for a Friend, Lostprophets, Bullet for My Valentine, Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers all have links with the city.

Most clubs and bars are situated in the city centre, especially St. Mary's Street, and more recently Cardiff Bay has built up a strong night scene, with many modern bars & restaurants. The Brewery Quarter on St. Mary's Street is a recently developed venue for bars and restaurant with a central courtyard. Charles Street is also a popular part of the city.

A number of other radio stations also serve the city and are based in Cardiff, including Real Radio, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Radio Cardiff, Gold , Rookwood Sound, Radio Glamorgan and Xpress Radio.

The spin-off Torchwood is set exclusively in Wales, with all but one episode being mainly set in Cardiff. In both programmes, a "time rift" transects the city, with specific focus on Roald Dahl Plass and the Millennium Centre. In "Boom Town" and "Utopia", the rift's recent activity is used to fuel the TARDIS, while in Torchwood , the eponymous secret government agency is based under the paving. Parts of "Gavin and Stacey", "The Worst Witch", "Tracy Beaker" and other popular television series are also filmed within Cardiff.

Cardiff is also the birthplace of Dalek creator Terry Nation and popular children's author Roald Dahl, for whom the plaza outside the Millennium Centre is named.

Cardiff has numerous smaller clubs who play in the Welsh Football System.

The replacement pool, the Cardiff International Pool was opened on 12 January 2008 in Cardiff Bay as part of the International Sports Village, and is the only Olympic-standard swimming pool in Wales.

Shirley Bassey is familiar to many as the singer of three James Bond movie theme tunes, whilst Charlotte Church is famous as a crossover classical/pop singer, and Shakin' Stevens was one of the top selling male artists in the UK during the 1980s. A number of Cardiff-based bands, such as Catatonia and Super Furry Animals were popular during the 1990s.

Cardiff is served by junctions 30 to 33 inclusive of the M4, plus junction 29a leading onto the A48.

The A4232 (also known as the Peripheral Distributor Road or PDR) when completed, will form part of the Cardiff ring-road system along with the M4 motorway between junctions 30 and 33.

On Sundays in summer the Beacons Bike Bus enables cyclists to take their bikes into the Beacons and then ride back to Cardiff along the Trail.

The airport is situated in the village of Rhoose, west of the city. There are regular bus services linking the airport with the Cardiff Central Bus Station as well as a train service from Rhoose Cardiff International Airport railway station to Cardiff Central.

The University of Glamorgan has a Cardiff campus, Atrium, which is home to the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries. The total number of higher education students in the city is around 30,000.

Source: Wikipedia > Cardiff