Cardiff - Geography, History, Demographics, Economy, Culture, media, sport and tourism, Government and politics, Transport, Education

51°30N 3°13W, pop (2001e) 305 300. Capital of Wales, in Cardiff county, S Wales, UK; also administrative centre of Rhondda Cynon Taff county council; at the mouth of the Taff, Rhymney, and Ely Rivers, on the Bristol Channel; Roman fort, 1st-c AD; Norman castle, c.1090; city charter, 1147; expansion in 19th-c as trade in coal grew; decline with the loss of coal and steel industries in recent decades; Tiger Bay quayside area now redeveloping as a suburb; capital of Wales, 1955; airport (Rhoose); railway; university college (1893); registry for University of Wales; general services, steel, car components, cigars, tourism; Welsh National Opera; Cathays Park public buildings, Llandaff Cathedral, Welsh National Folk Museum (St Fagans), Cardiff Castle, Millennium Stadium (1999), Wales Millennium Centre for performing arts in Cardiff Bay (2004), Welsh Assembly building (2006); football league team, Cardiff City (Bluebirds); location of the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

For other uses, see Cardiff (disambiguation). City of Cardiff

Geography
Area - Total - % Water	Ranked 19th 140 km² ? %
Admin HQ	Cardiff
ISO 3166-2	GB-CRF
Postcode	CF-- ---
Telephone code	029
ONS code	00PT
Traditional county	Glamorgan
Ceremonial county	South Glamorgan
Coordinates	51°29N 3°11W
Demographics
Population: - (2005 est.) - Density
Welsh language - Any skills	Ranked 18th 16.3%
Politics
Cardiff County Council http://www.cardiff.gov.uk/
Control	NOC (Liberal Democrat administration)
MPs	Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) Alun Michael (Cardiff South) Julie Morgan (Cardiff North) Jenny Willott (Cardiff Central) John Smith (Vale of Glamorgan)

Cardiff (English:Cardiff (help·info) Welsh:Caerdydd (help·info)) is the capital of Wales and its largest city. Cardiff was made a city in 1905 and proclaimed capital of Wales in 1955.

Geography

Cardiff is bordered to the west by the fertile plains of the Vale of Glamorgan, to the east by the city of Newport, to the north by the South Wales Valleys and to the south by the 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.

Cardiff is built on reclaimed marshland on a bed of Triassic stones; A widely used building stone in Cardiff are the surreal yellow-grey Lias limestone rocks 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 yellow-ish complexion of the lias limestone used mainly in the city centre give Cardiff an unusually sunny, light and breezy complexion for a city in the U.K..

Cardiff is situated near to the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, stretching westward from Penarth and Barry (which are commuter towns of Cardiff), with its striped yellow-blue Jurassic "lias" limestone/carboniferous limestone cliffs that thrust outwards towards the Bristol Channel. ships sailing upto 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.

Cardiff is linked to the West Somerset/North Devon seaside resorts (such as Minehead, Ilfracombe and Lundy Island) via the paddle steamers Waverley and Balmoral which sail from Penarth pier, as they have done for over 150 years.

Cardiff is a relatively flat city and its geographic features were influential in its development as one of the world's largest coal ports. Cardiff has a relatively dry climate compared to most of Wales , with an average rainfall of 1,065 mm. It is also a relatively mild city, with an average January temperature of 4.5 °C and an average July temperature of 16 °C

Cardiff city since 1922 includes the suburban cathedral 'village' of Llandaff, whose bishop is currently Archbishop of Wales. Since 1916 Cardiff has been the seat of a Catholic archbishop, but there appears to have been a fall in the estimated Catholic and Jewish population of the city.

Districts

There have been seven major expansions to Cardiff's boundaries between the years 1875-1996.

Roughly speaking, "Inner Cardiff" can be considered to consist of the following wards: Penylan, Plasnewydd, Gabalfa, Cathays, Adamsdown and Splott ward on the north and 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. The proximity of these areas to Cardiff Bay have led some critics of the project to argue that the regeneration scheme has failed as it has done little to improve the economic prospects of local people, and may have worsened problems of exclusion and alienation.

"Suburban Cardiff" can be broken down into three distinct areas.

To the North West of the city lies a region that may be called "Rural Cardiff" containing the villages of St Fagans, Creigiau and Pentyrch.

History

The name Cardiff is an Anglicisation of the Welsh name "Caerdydd". Some believe that "Dydd" or "Diff" was a corruption of "Taff", the river on which Cardiff castle stands, in which case "Cardiff" would mean "the fort on the river Taff" (in Welsh the T mutates to D).

Others favour a link with Aulus Didius Gallus, as it is known that the Romans established a fort in Cardiff when he was governor of the nearby province, in which case Cardiff might mean "the Fort of Didius". However, the Victorian castle stands on the footings of a much older medieval castle possibly built by Ivor Bach, a regional baron with links to Cardiff Castle also.

Situated on the narrowest part of the South Wales coastal plain, Cardiff had a crucial strategic importance in the wars between the Normans (who had occupied lowland Wales) and the Welsh who maintained their hold on the Uplands. As a result Cardiff claims to have the largest concentration of Castles of any city in Europe. As well as Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch the remains of Castell Morgraig, Bishop's Castle, Y Twmpath, Ruperra Castle and Saint Fagans Castle are still in existence while Whitchurch Castle and King's Castle have disappeared under later developments.

Language

Cardiff has a chequered linguistic history with Latin, English, Welsh, and Norse dominating at different times. 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.

A substantial Irish population settled in Cardiff during the 19th century, drawn by the work available on major building and engineering projects in the docks and the city itself.

Aided by Welsh-medium education and migration from rural Wales the number of Welsh speakers in Cardiff rose by 14,451 between 1991 and 2001 and is now spoken by 11% of Cardiffians.

Capital City Status

King Edward VII granted Cardiff city status on October 28, 1905.

The city is county town of Glamorgan, although this role has diminished since council reorganisation in 1974 paired Cardiff and the 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.

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

Demographics

Cardiff's population is a growing one, with a likely population figure exceeding 321,000 in 2006 representing an increase of over 10,000 since the 2001 final revised Census estimates of 310,400.

Official estimates derived from the census are controversial, however, and the city council, have 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.

A focus on census statistics fails to fully account for the diversity of the backgrounds of people in the city of Cardiff.

Economy

Industry

Cardiff was originally a small town - much smaller than Swansea and Merthyr Tydfil. The Cardiff Sea Lock, which enabled barges to unload iron into sea-going ships, was built at Harrowby St (Harrowby - a Viking place-name - had been the original Norse trading post in Cardiff). This was the first gated dock ever built the Cardiff - the genesis of all Cardiff Docks development and the seed of the ensuing shipping boom which was to follow over the next century. 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 world-wide demand for South Wales coal.

Cardiff's port, known as Tiger Bay, became one of the busiest ports in the world and - for some time - the world's most important coal port.

Present day

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. However many analysts claim that Cardiff suffers from the failure to attract high value added jobs in this sector when similar cities such as Bristol are more successful.

Cardiff has the UK's largest Film, TV & Cardiff is home to BBC Wales, S4C and ITV Wales.

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

In 2003 Cardiff combined with the Vale of Glamorgan had a GDP of £8.335 billion GBP.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added	Agriculture	Industry	Services
1995	4,797	11	1,121	3,666
2000	6,584	11	1,260	5,313
2003	8,335	11	1,410	6,913

Redevelopment

The city's central region, extending from the Hayes (a name allegedly derived from hedge) is now full of attractive modern buildings. This area of Cardiff will also shortly be redeveloped, as part of St Davids Centre - Phase 2 project. This project will create over 4,500 jobs upon completion and according to early projections, will attract £250m of extra spending to the city centre, and is also expected to push Cardiff into the top 5 for shopping in the UK behind only London and Glasgow.

One of Europe's largest urban regeneration schemes, Cardiff's 'International Sports Village' project has already commenced, based in Cardiff Bay. The leisure side of the development will include the new ice-rink for the Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey team, a Snow Dome and large activity centre, an Olympic sized swimming pool (to replace to temporary Wales National Pool in Swansea), hotel and conferencing facilities, a 5,000 seater Bay Arena as well as the proposed regional casino if accepted.

The plan by the Cardiff City F.C. Phase 2 of @Wales is currently under development in Beynon House, Cardiff Bay, which will provide incubator space for 25 companies and a state-of-the-art Digital Media Centre for Wales.

Culture, media, sport and tourism

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), and the Cardiff Metropolitan Cathedral. The annual Cardiff Festival claims to be the UK's largest free outdoor festival and plays host to a range of different festivals including the Children's Festival that takes place in the grounds of Cardiff Castle.

Cardiff's centre is a particularly green one with Bute Park, formerly the castle grounds, extending northwards from the top of the Cardiff's main shopping street (Queen Street);

It is possible to cycle from Cardiff to Brecon almost completely off road on the Taff Trail, a cycle route which follows the River Taff and many of the old disused railways of the Glamorganshire valleys.

Cardiff has an established and wide-ranging music scene. Cardiff is home to one of only four Barfly venues in the UK

Cardiff hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1883, 1899, 1938, 1960 and 1978, and is set to host it again in 2008. Cardiff is unique in Wales in having two permanent stone circles used by the Gorsedd of Bards during Eisteddfodau.

Every other year, Cardiff plays host to the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, a world renowned event on the Opera Calender.

Cardiff Philatelic Society is the oldest Philatelic Society in Wales.

Cardiff was in the short-list for the European Capital of Culture awards for 2008.

Media

Cardiff is the base for a number of national tv broadcasters including BBC Wales, ITV1 Wales, S4C, and Capital TV - Cardiff's own local television service. A number of other radio stations also serve Cardiff including Real Radio, Capital Gold, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru.

Cardiff has been repeatedly mentioned in the revival (2005-) of the BBC TV programme Doctor Who, the series having been chiefly filmed in and around the city (it is made for the BBC network by BBC Wales). The 2006 spin-off show, Torchwood, was also filmed in Cardiff and is set in the real-life modern city (as was one episode of Doctor Who: "Boom Town"). It has been claimed that 1 out of 5 tourists to Cardiff chose to visit after seeing it on TV (The Sun, Monday 17 April 2006)

Sports

The city has a regional rugby union team, Cardiff Blues who play in the Celtic League at their Cardiff Arms Park stadium. Cardiff has one main professional football club, Cardiff City F.C. Their stadium is at Ninian Park in South Cardiff, but are currently in a process to build a new stadium across the road in Leckwith which is due to be opened in 2009. Cardiff also has a county cricket side, Glamorgan CCC, who play at the city centre's Sophia Gardens ground, and will undergo a multi-million pound improvement in time to host a Test Match as part of the Ashes in 2009. Cardiff also plays host to a rugby league side, Cardiff Demons and a professional ice-hockey team, the Cardiff Devils.

Cardiff hosted the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. The Wales Empire Swimming Pool was demolished to make way for the Millennium Stadium, and eventually, a 50 metre replacement pool will be built in Cardiff Bay as part of the International Sports Village.

The city also features an international sporting venue, the Millennium Stadium, where the Welsh rugby team and the Welsh national football team plays, however they also play occasionally at Swansea's Liberty Stadium.

Government and politics

Cardiff is host to the National Assembly for Wales, which is situated in Cardiff Bay. The executive and civil servants 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 City Council is based in the County Hall in Atlantic Wharf, Cardiff Bay.

Cardiff elects 4 AM's to the Welsh Assembly and 4 MP's to the UK Parliament. There is also an electoral region for Cardiff, South Wales Central, that provides top-up seats to parties in the Assembly. Cardiff is part of the Wales constituency in European Parliament elections.

Local government

Since local government reorganisation in 1996, Cardiff has been governed by Cardiff City Council.

Following the 2004 local elections, no individual political party has a majority on Cardiff City Council.

National Assembly for Wales

The National Assembly for Wales is based in Cardiff Bay since 1999. Cardiff elects 4 constituency AMs to the Assembly, with the individual constituencies for the Assembly being the same as for the UK Parliament.

Political representation

Cardiff is presently split into four parliamentary constituencies which form the electoral basis for elections to the United Kingdom Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.

The constituencies and their representatives are:

Cardiff Central: MP Jenny Willott, AM Jenny Randerson Cardiff North: MP Julie Morgan, AM Sue Essex Cardiff South and Penarth: MP Alun Michael, AM Lorraine Barrett Cardiff West: MP Kevin Brennan, AM Rhodri Morgan

Famous politicians who have represented Cardiff constituencies include:

Lord Callaghan George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy

Transport

Cardiff is a major transport hub in Wales and is the focus for many arterial road and rail routes that connect the city to the rest of South and West Wales and England.

Road

The M4 motorway is the principal motorway in the region that connects Cardiff with Swansea and West Wales, and also England and principally, London.

The A48(M) motorway is another motorway within the city, acting as a short spur off the M4 to the city centre.

As with many other cities car traffic has caused congestion problems and as such the council has designated bus lanes to improve transport into and out of the city centre. There are also ideas to introduce congestion charging, as seen in London

There are several road and rail bridges that cross the River Taff in Cardiff.

Bus

Cardiff enjoys a comprehensive bus network, with council-owned Cardiff Bus providing the vast majority of routes in the city and out as far as Newport, Penarth, Barry and Llantwit Major. Cardiff Bus has recently introduced "bendy buses" on the popular 17 and 18 routes to Canton, Ely and Caerau and on the Cardiff Bay route.

Rail

Train transport is well developed in Cardiff with there being 20 train stations in the city, the largest being - Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street, both in the city centre.

Arriva Trains Wales operates train services connecting the city centre to all other stations in Cardiff as well as the Valleys. Cardiff Central is the largest railway station in Wales and one of the busiest in the country which provides an interchange for many local services.

Cardiff Queen Street railway station is the second busiest in Wales and is hub for routes via the Valley Lines services that connect the South Wales Valleys and the Cardiff suburbs with the city centre and is situated on the eastern end of the city centre which is quite convenient for shoppers.

Cardiff benefits from having a centralised and integrated transport system.

Air

Cardiff and South & West Wales are also served by Cardiff International Airport (CWL), the only large airport in the whole of Wales. There are regular bus services linking the airport with the Central Bus Station as well as a train service from Rhoose Cardiff International Airport railway station to Cardiff Central.

The Taff Trail enables cyclists to cycles across Cardiff Bay and into the Brecon Beacons uninterrupted.

Education

Cardiff is home to three major institutions of higher education: Cardiff University, founded by Royal Charter in 1883,, is a "red brick" university and member of the Russell Group of leading research led universities; University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) gained university status in 1992;

Cardiff has eighty-three state primary schools (two bilingual, ten Welsh medium), and twenty state secondary schools, of which two are Welsh medium..

As well as academic institutions, Cardiff is also home to other educational and learning organisations such as Techniquest, a hands on science discovery centre that now has franchises throughout Britain. Techniquest is also part of the Wales Gene Park in collaboration with Cardiff University, NHS Wales and the Welsh Development Agency (WDA).

Cardiff University was home to Millicent McKenzie who was possibly the first female in Britain to be addressed as ‘Professor’, becoming associate Professor in 1904 and full Professor in 1910.. Famous alumni of Cardiff University include Neil Kinnock, Glenys Kinnock, millionaire businessman and philanthropist Julian Hodge, the BBC newsreader Huw Edwards, and fellow BBC personalities Jeremy Bowen and Adrian Chiles.

Health

Cardiff has one major hospital, the University Hospital of Wales which is also known simply as 'Heath Hospital' and is the third largest in the UK.

Twinning

Cardiff has twinning arrangements with:

Regions

Hordaland, Norway Luhans'k, Ukraine

Cities

Image:Pernik Gerb.gif‎ Pernik, Pernik, [[Image:Template:Country flag alias Bylgaria|22x20px|Template:Country alias Bylgaria]] Bulgaria Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany Xiamen, Fujian, China

Natives of Cardiff

Pino Palladino Danny Abse Leo Abse Wilfred Abse Jeremy Bowen Shirley Bassey Dave Burns Owen John Thomas A.M.