Cardiff
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Dinas a Sir Caerdydd
Flag
Coat of arms
(The red dragon will lead the way)
Cardiff (English: Cardiff IPA: /'kÉ‘Ëdɪf/, Welsh: Caerdydd ) is the capital and the largest city and county in Wales. As well as being the political capital, it is Wales's centre for business, education, sport, tourism, culture, media and government. According to recent local government estimates, the population of the unitary authority area is 317,500.[1]
The city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan (later South Glamorgan). Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities.[2]Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area, including Dinas Powys, Penarth and Radyr. It was a small town until the early 19th century and came to prominence as a major port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region. Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed capital of Wales in 1955. Since the 1990s Cardiff has seen significant development with a new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay which contains the new Welsh Assembly Building, and the city centre is undergoing a major redevelopment. International sporting venues in the city include the Millennium Stadium (rugby union and football) and SWALEC Stadium (cricket). Cardiff is a significant tourist centre with 11.7 million visitors in 2006.[3]
Contents
[edit] History
[edit] Origins of the name
The name Cardiff and its Welsh equivalent Caerdydd are both believed by most modern experts to derive from post-Roman Brythonic words meaning "the fort on the Taff". "Dydd" or "Diff" are both modifications of "Taff", the river on which Cardiff Castle stands, with the T mutating to D in Welsh. According to Professor Hywel Wyn Owen, a leading modern authority on toponymy, the Welsh pronunciation of "Caerdyff" as "Caerdydd" shows the colloquial alternation of Welsh "-f" and "-dd".[4]
In the past, antiquarians such as William Camden suggested that the name Cardiff might derive from the name "Caer-Didi" ("the Fort of Didius") given in honour of Aulus Didius Gallus, governor of a nearby province at the time when the Romans established a fort at Cardiff. Although some websites repeat this theory as fact, it is disputed by modern scholars on linguistic grounds, with Professor Gwynedd Pierce of Cardiff University recently describing it as "rubbish".[5]
[edit] Roman period to the Middle Ages
The history of what is now Cardiff began with a Roman fort on the site, built in 75 CE.[6] As Roman rule in Britannia ended near the start of the 5th century the fort was abandoned.[6]
In 1091 Robert Fitzhamon began work on the castle keep within the walls of the old Roman fort. Cardiff Castle has been at the heart of the city ever since. [7] The castle was substantially altered and extended during the Victorian period by John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, and the architect William Burges. Original Roman work can, however, still be distinguished in the wall facings.
Soon a little town grew up in the shadow of the castle, made up primarily of settlers from England.[8] Cardiff had a population of between 1,500 and 2,000 in the Middle Ages, a relatively normal size for a Welsh town in this period.[9] By the end of the 13th century, Cardiff was the only town in Wales with a population exceeding 2,000, but it was relatively small compared with most other notable towns in the Kingdom of England.[10]
In the early 12th century a wooden palisade was erected around the city to protect it. Cardiff was a busy port in the Middle Ages, and was declared a Staple port in 1327.[6]
In 1404 Owain Glyndwr burned Cardiff and took Cardiff Castle.[6] As the town was still very small, most of the buildings were made of wood and the town was destroyed. However, the town was soon rebuilt and began to flourish once again.[9]
[edit] County town of Glamorganshire
In 1536, the Act of Union between England and Wales led to the creation of the shire of Glamorgan, and Cardiff was made the county town. Around this same time the Herbert family became the most powerful family in the area.[8] In 1538, Henry VIII closed the Dominican and Franciscan friaries in Cardiff, the remains of which were used as building materials.[9] A writer around this period described Cardiff: "The River Taff runs under the walls of his honours castle and from the north part of the town to the south part where there is a fair quay and a safe harbour for shipping."[9]
Cardiff had become a Free Borough in 1542.[6] In 1573, it was made a head port for collection of customs duties, and in 1581, Elizabeth I granted Cardiff its first royal charter.[8]Pembrokeshire historian George Owen described Cardiff in 1602 as "the fayrest towne in Wales yett not the welthiest.[8], and the town gained a second Royal Charter in 1608.[11] During the Second English Civil War, St. Fagans just to the west of the town, played host to the Battle of St. Fagans. The battle, between a Royalist rebellion and a New Model Army detachment, was a decisive victory for the Parliamentarians and allowed Oliver Cromwell to conquer Wales.[6] It is the last major battle to occur in Wales, with about 200 (mostly Royalist) soldiers killed.[8]
In the ensuing century Cardiff was at peace. In 1766, John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute married into the Herbert family and was later created Baron Cardiff,[8] and in 1778 he began renovations on Cardiff Castle.[12] In the 1790s a racecourse, printing press, bank and coffee house all opened, and Cardiff gained a stagecoach service to London. Despite these improvements, Cardiff's position in the Welsh urban hierarchy had declined over the 18th century. Iolo Morgannwg called it "an obscure and inconsiderable place", and the 1801 census found the population to be only 1,870, making Cardiff only the twenty-fifth largest town in Wales, well behind Merthyr and Swansea.[13]
[edit] Building of the docks
In 1793, John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute was born. He would spend his life building the Cardiff docks and would later be called "the creator of modern Cardiff".[8] A twice-weekly boat service between Cardiff and Bristol was established in 1815,[12] and in 1821, the Cardiff Gas Works was established.[12]
The town grew rapidly from the 1830s onwards, when the Marquess of Bute built a dock which eventually linked to the Taff Vale Railway. Cardiff became the main port for exports of coal from the Cynon, Rhondda, and Rhymney valleys, and grew at a rate of nearly 80% per decade between 1840 and 1870. Much of the growth was due to migration from within and outside Wales: in 1841, a quarter of Cardiff's population were English-born and more than 10% had been born in Ireland.[14] By the 1881 census, Cardiff had overtaken both Merthyr and Swansea to become the largest town in Wales.[15] 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.[13]
Cardiff faced a challenge in the 1880s when David Davies of Llandinam and the Barry Railway Company promoted the development of rival docks at Barry. Barry docks had the advantage of being accessible in all tides, and David Davies claimed that his venture would cause "grass to grow in the streets of Cardiff". From 1901 coal exports from Barry surpassed those from Cardiff, but the administration of the coal trade remained centred on Cardiff, in particular its Coal Exchange, where the price of coal on the British market was determined and the first million-pound deal was struck in 1907.[13] The city also strengthened its industrial base with the decision of the owners of the Dowlais Ironworks in Merthyr (who would later form part of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds) to build a new steelworks close to the docks at East Moors, which was opened on 4 February 1891 by Lord Bute.[16]
[edit] City and capital city status
King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status on 28 October 1905,[17] and the city acquired a Roman Catholic Cathedral in 1916. In subsequent years an increasing number of national institutions were located in the city, including the National Museum of Wales, Welsh National War Memorial, and the University of Wales Registry Building—however, it was denied the National Library of Wales, partly because the library's founder, Sir John Williams, considered Cardiff to have "a non-Welsh population".[13]
After a brief post-war boom, Cardiff docks entered a prolonged decline in the interwar period. By 1936, their trade was less than half its value in 1913, reflecting the slump in demand for Welsh coal.[13] Bomb damage during the Cardiff Blitz in World War II included the devastation of Llandaff Cathedral, and in the immediate postwar years the city's link with the Bute family came to an end.
The city was proclaimed capital city of Wales on 20 December 1955, by a written reply by the Home Secretary Gwilym Lloyd George. Caernarfon had also vied for this title.[18] Cardiff therefore celebrated two important anniversaries in 2005. The Encyclopedia of Wales notes that the decision to recognise the city as the capital of Wales "had more to do with the fact that it contained marginal Conservative constituencies than any reasoned view of what functions a Welsh capital should have". Although the city hosted the Commonwealth Games in 1958, Cardiff only became a centre of national administration with the establishment of the Welsh Office in 1964, which later prompted the creation of various other public bodies such as the Arts Council of Wales and the Welsh Development Agency, most of which were based in Cardiff.
The East Moors Steelworks closed in 1978 and Cardiff lost population during the 1980s,[19] consistent with a wider pattern of counter urbanisation in Britain. However, it recovered and was one of the few cities (outside London) where population grew during the 1990s.[20] During this period the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was promoting the redevelopment of south Cardiff; an evaluation of the regeneration of Cardiff Bay published in 2004 concluded that the project had "reinforced the competitive position of Cardiff" and "contributed to a massive improvement in the quality of the built environment", although it had failed "to attract the major inward investors originally anticipated".[21]
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.[22][23] The relative lack of support for the Assembly locally, and difficulties between the Welsh Office and Cardiff Council in acquiring the original preferred venue, Cardiff City Hall, encouraged other local authorities to bid to house the Assembly.[24][25] However, the Assembly eventually located at Crickhowell House in Cardiff Bay in 1999; in 2005, a new debating chamber on an adjacent site, designed by Richard Rogers, was opened.
The city was county town of Glamorgan until the council reorganisation in 1974 paired Cardiff and the now Vale of Glamorgan together as the new county of South Glamorgan. 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.
[edit] Governance
[edit] Local government
Since local government reorganisation in 1996, Cardiff has been governed by The City and County Council of Cardiff, which is based at County Hall in Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay. Voters elect 75 councillors every four years, with the next elections due to be held in 2012.
Since the 2004 local elections, no individual political party has held a majority on Cardiff County Council. The Liberal Democrats have 35 councillors, the Conservatives have 17, Labour have 13, Plaid Cymru have 7 and three councillors sit as Independents. The Leader of the Council, Cllr Rodney Berman, is from the Liberal Democrats.
The Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru have formed a partnership administration to run the council.
[edit] National Assembly for Wales
The National Assembly for Wales has been based in Cardiff Bay since its formation in 1999. The building which is now known as the Senedd (Welsh for Legislature, Parliament or Senate) was opened on 1 March 2006, by The Queen. 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.
[edit] Geography
Cardiff is a relatively flat city bounded by hills on the outskirts to the east, north and west. Its geographic features were influential in its development as the world's largest coal port,[26] most notably its proximity and easy access to the coal fields of the south Wales valleys.
Cardiff is built on reclaimed marshland on a bed of Triassic stones; this reclaimed marshland stretches from Chepstow to the Ely Estuary,[27] which is the natural boundary of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Triassic landscapes of this part of the world are usually shallow and low-lying which accounts and explains the flatness of the centre of Cardiff.[28] The classic Triassic marl, sand and conglomerate rocks are used predominantly throughout Cardiff as building materials. 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).
Cardiff is bordered to the west by the rural district of the Vale of Glamorgan, which is also known as The Garden of Cardiff,[29] to the east by the city of Newport, to the north by the South Wales Valleys and to the south by the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel. 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.
Cardiff is situated near the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, stretching westward from Penarth and Barry (which are commuter towns of Cardiff), with its striped yellow-blue Jurassic "lias" limestone cliffs that thrust outwards towards the Bristol Channel. 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.[30]
[edit] Cityscape
- See also: List of places in Cardiff
Roughly speaking, "Inner Cardiff" can be considered to consist of the following wards: Penylan, Plasnewydd, Gabalfa, Roath, Cathays, Adamsdown and Splott ward on the north and east of the city centre, and Butetown, Grangetown, Riverside and Canton to the south and west. The inner-city areas to the south of the A4161 road known as the "Southern Arc" are, with the exception of affluent and trendy Cardiff Bay, some of the poorest districts of Wales with low levels of economic activity and high ethnic minority populations. On the other hand Gabalfa, Plasnewydd and Cathays north of the 'arc' have very large student populations,[31] and Pontcanna north of Riverside and alongside Canton is a favourite for young professionals and media types. Penylan which lies to the north east side of Roath Park is an affluent area popular with those with older children and the retired.
"Suburban Cardiff" can be broken down into three distinct areas. To the west lie Ely, Caerau and Fairwater which contain some of the largest housing estates in the United Kingdom. With the exception of some of the outlying privately built estates at Michaelston Super Ely and 1930s developments near Waun-Gron Road, this is an economically disadvantaged area with high numbers of unemployed households. 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.[32]
To the north west of the city lies a region that may be called "Rural Cardiff" containing the villages of St. Fagans, Creigiau, Pentyrch, Tongwynlais and Gwaelod-y-garth. St. Fagans, home to the Museum of Welsh Life, is protected from further development.[33]
precipitation totals in mm
source: Met Office
precipitation totals in inches
[edit] Climate
Cardiff has a temperate climate where summers and winters are generally mild. More specifically Cardiff has an oceanic climate, with prevailing winds blowing in from the south-west over the Atlantic Ocean.
Cardiff has a relatively dry climate compared with most of Wales,[34] with an average rainfall of 1,065 millimetres (41.9 in). It is also a relatively mild city,[35] with an average January temperature of 4.5 °C (40.1 °F) and an average July temperature of 16 °C (61 °F)[36]
[edit] Demography
which refers to the local authority
area and is estimated by the
Office for National Statistics
Following a period of decline during the 1970s and 1980s, Cardiff's population is growing. The local authority area had an estimated population of more than 317,500 in 2006, compared to a 2001 Census figure of 305,353.[37] According to Census 2001 data, Cardiff was the 14th largest settlement in the United Kingdom,[38] and the 21st largest urban area.[39]
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.[40][41]
Cardiff has a ethnically diverse population due to its past trading connections, post-war immigration and the large numbers of foreign students who attend university in the city. The ethnic make-up of Cardiff's population at the time of the 2001 census was: 91.6% white, 2% mixed race, 4% South Asian, 1.3% Black, 1.2% Other ethnic origin. According to a report published in 2005, over 30,000 people from an ethnic minority live in Cardiff, around 8.4% of the city's total - many of these communities live in Butetown, where ethnic minorities make up around a third of the total population.[42] This diversity, and especially that of the city's long-established African and Arab communities, has been celebrated in a number of cultural exhibitions and events, along with a number of books which have been published on this subject.[43][44]
[edit] Religion
- See also: History of the Jews in Wales
Since 1922 Cardiff has included the suburban cathedral 'village' of Llandaff, whose bishop is Archbishop of Wales. There is also a Roman Catholic cathedral in the city. Since 1916 Cardiff has been the seat of a Catholic archbishop, but there appears to have been a fall in the estimated Catholic population, with estimated numbers in 2006 being around 25,000 less than in 1980.[45] Likewise, the Jewish population of the city has also appeared to have fallen—there are two synagogues in Cardiff, one in Cyncoed and one in Moira Terrace, as opposed to seven at the turn of the 20th century.[46] There are a significant number of nonconformist chapels, an early-20th century Greek Orthodox church and eleven mosques.[47][48][49]
In the 2001 census 66.9% of the city's population described themselves as Christian, below the Welsh and UK average, while 3.7% described themselves as Muslim, significantly above the Welsh average but in line with the UK average. The proportion of people declaring themselves to be Hindu, Sikh and Jewish were all considerably higher than the Welsh averages, but less than the UK figures. 18.8% stated they had no religion, while 8.6% did not state a religion.[50]
The oldest of the non-Christian faith communities in Wales is Judaism. Jews were not permitted to live Wales between the 1290 Edict of Expulsion and the seventeenth century. A Welsh Jewish community was re-established in the eighteenth century.[51]
Jews continue to be part of Welsh life.[clarify] The modern community is centered in the Cardiff United Synagogue.
Cardiff has one of the longest-established Muslim populations in the UK, started by Yemeni sailors who settled in the city during the 19th century.[52] The first mosque in the UK (on the site of what is now known as the Al-Manar Islamic Centre) opened in 1860 in the Cathays district of Cardiff.[53] Cardiff is now home to over 11,000 Muslims from many different nationalities and backgrounds.[54]
The city has been home to a sizable Hindu community since Indian immigrants settled there during the 1950s and 1960s. The first Hindu temple in the city was opened in Grangetown on April 6, 1979 on the site of an abandoned printing press (which itself was the former site of a synagogue).[55] The 25th anniversary of the temple's founding was celebrated in September 2007 with a parade of over 3000 people through the city centre, including Hindus from across the United Kingdom and members of Cardiff's other religious communities.[56] Today, there are over 2000 Hindus in Cardiff, worshiping at three temples across the city.[54]
[edit] Economy
As the capital city of Wales, Cardiff is the main engine of growth in the Welsh economy. The economy of Cardiff and adjacent areas makes up nearly 20% of Welsh GDP and 40% of the city’s workforce are daily in-commuters from the surrounding south Wales area.[57][58]
Industry has played a major part in Cardiff's development for many centuries. The main catalyst for its transformation from a small town into a big city was the demand for coal required in making iron and later steel, brought to the sea by packhorse from Merthyr Tydfil. This was first achieved by the construction of a 25-mile (40 km) long canal from Merthyr (510 feet above sea-level) to the Taff Estuary at Cardiff.[59] Eventually the Taff Vale Railway replaced the canal barges and massive marshalling yards sprang up as new docks were developed in Cardiff - all prompted by the soaring worldwide demand for coal from the South Wales valleys.
At its peak, Cardiff's port, known as Tiger Bay, became the busiest port in the world and—for some time—the world's most important coal port. In the years leading up to the First World War, more than 10 million tonnes of coal was exported annually from Cardiff.[60] In 1907, Cardiff's Coal Exchange was the first host to a business deal for a million pounds Sterling.[61] After a period of decline, Cardiff's port has started to grow again - over 3 million tonnes of cargo passed through through the docks in 2007.[62]
Today, Cardiff is the principal finance and business services centre in Wales, and as such there is a strong representation of finance and business services in the local economy. This sector, combined with the Public Administration, Education and Health sectors, have accounted for around 75% of Cardiff's economic growth since 1991.[63] The city was recently placed seventh overall in the top 50 European cities in the fDI 2008 Cities of the Future list published by the Foreign Direct Invester (FDI) magazine, and also ranked seventh in terms of attracting foreign investment.[64] Notable companies such as Legal & General, Admiral Insurance, HBOS, Zurich, ING Direct, The AA, Principality Building Society, 118118, British Gas, Brains, SWALEC Energy and BT, all operate large national or regional headquarters and contact centres in the city, some of them based in Cardiff's office towers such as Capital Tower and Brunel House. Other major employers include NHS Wales and the National Assembly for Wales. On 1 March 2004, Cardiff was granted Fairtrade City status.
Cardiff is the one of the most popular tourist destination cities in the United Kingdom, with one survey recording just under 12 million visitors in 2006.[65] One result of this is that one in five employees in Cardiff are based in the distribution, hotels and restaurants sector, highlighting the growing retail and tourism industries in the city.[63] There are a large number of hotels of varying sizes and standards in the city, providing almost 9,000 available bed spaces.[65]