Cardiff

This article is about the Welsh capital. For the place in United States, see Cardiff, California.

City of Cardiff
Missing image WalesCardiff.png Image:WalesCardiff.png
Geography
Area - Total - % Water	Ranked 19th 140 km² ? %
Admin HQ	Cardiff
ISO 3166-2	GB-CRF
ONS code	00PT
Geographical coordinates	51°29N 3°11W
Demographics
Population - Total (April 29, 2001) - Density	Ranked 1st 305,353 2,181 / km²
Ethnicity	84.7% White 7.0% S.Asian 6.3% Black 2.0% Chinese.
Welsh language - Any skills	Ranked 18th 16.3%
Politics
Missing image Cardiffarms.PNG Cardiff County Council http://www.cardiff.gov.uk
Control	(No overall control)
MPs	Kevin Brennan Alun Michael Julie Morgan Jenny Willott

Cardiff (Welsh: Caerdydd, from caer, "fort," and dydd, "Aulus Didius") is the capital and largest city of Wales. Traditionally it is a part of Glamorgan and since 1996 it has been a unitary authority. It was a small town until the early nineteenth century and came to prominence following the arrival of industry in the region and the use of Cardiff as a major port for the transport of coal. Cardiff was made a city in 1905 and proclaimed capital of Wales in 1955. In the Census 2001 the population of Cardiff was 305,340, making it the 16th largest settlement in the United Kingdom. People from Cardiff are called Cardiffians.

Contents

1 Industry

2 History

3 Culture, media, sport and tourism

Industry

Cardiff's port, known as Tiger Bay, was once one of the busiest ports in the world and for some time the world's most important coal port. It also housed one of the UK's earliest immigrant communities. After a long period of neglect as "Cardiff Bay," it is now being regenerated as a popular area for arts, entertainment and nightlife. Much of the growth has been thanks to the building of the Cardiff Barrage.

Caroline Street is one of the three oldest streets in Cardiff and is a major link between two of the busiest streets (St. Mary Street and the Hayes). The street has been a host to all kinds of stores but more recently has been taken over by chip and kebab shops, and as such is commonly known as Chip Row, Chip Alley, or Chippy Lane, and is a popular post-club location, leaving the street often looking like a sea of polystyrene containers. As of 2003, luxury flats were being built and plans were made to refurbish the street. As part of the development a Hard Rock Cafe and a Nandos have opened in the Old Brewery Quarter.

The city is also host to S A Brain, a brewery with premises in Cardiff since 1882.

Development and growth were initially centred on the transportation of coal, where coal mined from the Rhondda Valley was sent to the port by barge along the River Taff. A logical extension of the coal business was the development of an iron and steel industry, based largely on the port and the valleys coal. The 1980's brought closures, and thousands of local workers were made redundant as the steel industry moved out of Cardiff, including the largest GKN steelworks in Newport Road.

History

The name Cardiff is an Anglicisation of Welsh name "Caerdydd". There is uncertainty concerning the origin of "Caerdydd"—"Caer" means "fort" or "castle," but although "Dydd" means "Day" in modern Welsh, it is unclear what was meant in this context. For many years it was believed that "Dydd" or "Diff" was a corruption of "Taff" the river on which Cardiff stands, in which case "Cardiff" would mean the fort on the river Taff (in Welsh the T mutates to D). Modern research casts doubt on this meaning, and it is now known the Romans under Aulus Didius established a fort in Cardiff. Considering this it is now believed that Cardiff means the fort of Aulus Didius. A Norman castle still exists, on the site of an earlier Roman fort, but was substantially altered and extended during the Victorian period by John Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, and the architect William Burgess.

There is a second castle north of the city, called Castell Coch (Welsh: "the Red Castle"). The current castle is an elaborately decorated Victorian folly designed by Burgess for the Marquess and built in the 1870s. However, the Victorian castle stands on the site of a much older medieval castle built by Ivor Bach, a regional baron with links to Cardiff Castle also. The exterior has been used for filming several television series, for example as the outside of Cackles Academy in the ITV presentation of The Worst Witch.

King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status on October 28, 1905. It was then proclaimed capital city of Wales on December 20, 1955. Therefore, Cardiff celebrates two important anniversaries in 2005.

Like many cities Cardiff is strewn with "Parks", the most commonly known being Roath Park and Llandaff Fields, but there are many other parks such as Thompson's Park - which used to be home to an avery of many differing birds, though sadly this was removed in the 1970's.

On March 1, 2004, Cardiff was granted Fairtrade City status.

Culture, media, sport and tourism

The city has a professional football team, Cardiff City F.C., nicknamed "The Bluebirds". There is also the Cardiff Blues regional rugby union team, and the Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey team. The city also features an international sporting venue, the Millennium Stadium. Cardiff hosted the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

Cardiff is home to Cardiff Castle, the National Assembly for Wales, St. David's Hall, the National Museum and Gallery, and Cathays Park (including municipal buildings modelled on those in New Delhi). The Welsh National Opera moved into the Wales Millennium Centre in November 2004.

The city has its own university, Cardiff University, as well as two University of Wales colleges, the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Cardiff has also been repeatedly mentioned in the BBC TV show Doctor Who, where it was often filmed. The mentions are a bit tongue-in-check, of the "Where are we? It's not Cardiff again is it?" variety.

Cardiff hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1883, 1899, 1938, 1960 and 1978.

Twinning

Cardiff has twinning arrangements with:

Politics

Since gaining autonomy at the county level in 1996, Cardiff has been governed by Cardiff County Council. Following the 2004 local elections, no individual political party has a majority on Cardiff County Council. The Liberal Democrats have 33 councillors, Labour have 27, the Conservatives have 12 and Plaid Cymru have 3. The Leader of the council is from the Liberal Democrats.

Natives of Cardiff

Images

External links

Cardiff Council site (http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/)
Directory for Cardiff and surroundings (http://www.regiochannel.co.uk/cardiff/index.html)

United Kingdom \| Wales \| Principal areas of Wales
Anglesey \| Blaenau Gwent \| Bridgend \| Caerphilly \| Cardiff \| Carmarthenshire \| Ceredigion \| Conwy \| Denbighshire \| Flintshire \| Gwynedd \| Merthyr Tydfil \| Monmouthshire \| Neath Port Talbot \| Newport \| Pembrokeshire \| Powys \| Rhondda Cynon Taff \| Swansea \| Torfaen \| Vale of Glamorgan \| Wrexham