Cardiff

Cardiff, city and capital of Wales. Cardiff exists as both a city and a county within the Welsh unitary authority system of local government. It is located within the historic county of Glamorgan (Morgannwg) on the Bristol Channel at the mouth of the River Taff, about 150 miles (240 km) west of London. The origins of its name are a point of debate but are widely believed to have come from an English corruption of the original Welsh title Caer-Taff (Fort on the Taff).

The Romans built a small fort there in the 1st century ce, where the Gloucester-Carmarthen road crossed the Taff, altering it several times before creating the present stone-enclosed site. The town began its continuous existence with the arrival of the Normans in the 11th century. The Norman landowner Robert FitzHamon built a fortification within the remains of the Roman fort, possibly as early as 1081. Cardiff Castle became the base of the lords of Glamorgan, governing the county on behalf of the English crown for the next 450 years. By 1150 a stone shell keep (a masonry replacement for a wooden palisade crowning the motte) was erected on the mound—one of the finest surviving examples of its type in the country. Outside the castle a small walled town grew up, and it benefited from the trading privileges which went with its status as a staple port, granted through a series of charters by either the local lord or the crown (e.g., 1608, from James I). Cardiff acted as a market centre and small port for the coastal plain nearby. The castle and lordship came into the possession of Richard III, Henry VII, and finally Henry VIII, who never visited Cardiff and who abolished the post in 1536. In 1550, however, Edward VI created a new title, lord of Cardiff and keeper of Cardiff Castle, and granted it to the Herbert family of South Wales, from whom it passed by marriage in 1776 to the earl (marquess since 1796) of Bute. The Bute family greatly influenced the subsequent development of Cardiff. They renovated the turreted castle as a residence, with spectacular mock medieval towers and spires added in the late 19th century by architect William Burges, and sold land adjoining it for the creation of a Civic Centre in the early 20th century. Cardiff Castle itself and its attached extensive parkland were given to the city of Cardiff in 1947.

Cardiff’s expansion stemmed from the development of coal and iron ore mines around Merthyr Tydfil, to the north, beginning in the second half of the 18th century. In 1794 the Glamorganshire Canal opened between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff, and in 1798 the first dock was built at the canal’s Cardiff terminus. In 1801 Cardiff’s population was only 1,870, but the town developed rapidly and continuously over the next 100 years as an exporter of coal from South Wales, so that its population had reached 164,000 by 1901. John, 2nd marquess of Bute (1793–1848), constructed a basin and dock at Cardiff that opened in 1839. The railways arrived soon thereafter and connected Cardiff with the industrial and mining hinterland. Additional docks were completed in 1859, and the developing iron industry in the hinterland brought more traffic to Cardiff, which was designated a city in 1905. Cardiff’s port was repeatedly expanded, and by 1913 Cardiff had become the largest coal-exporting port in the world.

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In 1922 Cardiff’s area was expanded to include Llandaff, with its cathedral. The port’s coal trade fell off dramatically after 1918 and ceased altogether in 1963, but Cardiff remained the largest city in Wales. It was officially recognized as the capital of Wales in 1955. Cardiff is the most important administrative, shopping, and cultural centre in the country, as well as the headquarters for many national organizations and government departments. Cardiff is the home of the devolved National Assembly for Wales. It is also an important industrial centre—mainly for food processing, engineering, and other light industries—and a hub for commerce, law, higher education, media, and independent film production. In the early 21st century Cardiff also became an important centre of television production, most notably as the home base for the popular long-running BBC series Doctor Who.

Cardiff has many notable buildings, though few historic ones (the main exceptions being the castle, Llandaff Cathedral, and the medieval parish church of St. John). The Civic Centre in Cathays Park is a fine set of public buildings, built since 1904, mostly in portland stone, and set among ornamental gardens and broad avenues. Noteworthy among these public buildings are the city hall, the law courts, the National Museum Wales (with one of the largest collections of Impressionist paintings outside Paris), the Welsh National War Memorial, and Cardiff University, which was created when University College Cardiff and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology merged in 1988 (adopting the name Cardiff University in 1999). Also noteworthy is the Old Library building, completed in 1882, which now houses the Cardiff Story Museum, the city’s history museum. The docklands of the former port were renovated during the 1990s, with one of Europe’s largest-ever waterfront developments, centring on the construction of a tidal barrage, which enclosed 490 acres (200 hectares) of water as a freshwater lake. New developments along the waterfront included Techniquest, an interactive science museum; the Wales Millennium Centre, an exhibition and performance space that opened in 2004; and hotels and restaurants as well as sports and recreation facilities. The waterfront development helped transform Cardiff into a major tourist destination in the early 21st century. In 1999 Cardiff became the seat of government for Wales, and the parliament building, the Senedd, opened in 2006.

The St. Fagans National History Museum occupies the 100-acre (40-hectare) grounds of St. Fagan’s Castle, 4.5 miles (7 km) west of the city centre, and Principality (formerly Millennium) Stadium has one of the world’s largest retractable roofs. Cardiff also has a bounty of green space, partly thanks to the vast acreage of private gardens gifted to the city by former landowners.

In addition to Cardiff University, the city is the site of Cardiff Metropolitan University and has a campus of the University of South Wales. Among those who have called Cardiff home are writer Roald Dahl, composer and actor Ivor Novello, and singer Shirley Bassey.

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The city’s airport is at Rhoose, 12 miles (19 km) west. Area unitary authority, 54 square miles (139 square km). Pop. (2001) city, 292,150; unitary authority, 305,353; (2011) city, 335,145; unitary authority, 346,090.