Cardiff. History of Wales

Music and performing arts

Cardiff International Arena

A large number of concerts are held within the city, the larger ones being performed in St David's Hall, the Motorpoint Arena (previously known as the Cardiff International Arena) and occasionally the Millennium Stadium. A number of festivals are also held in Cardiff—the largest of these is the Cardiff Big Weekend Festival, which is held annually in the city centre during the summer and plays host to free musical performances (from artists such as Ash, Jimmy Cliff, Cerys Matthews, the Fun Loving Criminals, Soul II Soul and The Magic Numbers), fairground rides and cultural events such as a Children's Festival that takes place in the grounds of Cardiff Castle. The annual festival claims to be the UK's largest free outdoor festival, attracting over 250,000 visitors in 2007.

Cardiff hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1883, 1899, 1938, 1960, 1978 and 2008. Cardiff is unique in Wales in having two permanent stone circles used by the Gorsedd of Bards during Eisteddfodau. The original circle stands in Gorsedd Gardens in front of the National Museum while its 1978 replacement is situated in Bute Park. Since 1983, Cardiff has hosted the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, a world renowned event on the opera calendar which is held every two years. The city also hosts smaller events.

St David's Hall

A number of performing arts venues are located within the city—the largest and most prominent of these is the Wales Millenium Centre, which hosts performances of opera, ballet, dance, comedy and musicals, and (as of autumn 2008) is home to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. St David's Hall (which hosts the Singer of the World competition) has regular performances of classical music and ballet as well as music of other genres. The largest of Cardiff's theatres is the New Theatre, situated in the city centre just off Queen Street. Other such venues include the Sherman Theatre, Chapter Arts Centre and The Gate Arts Centre.

The Cardiff music scene is established and wide-ranging—it is home to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Welsh National Opera, 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, The Oppressed, Kids In Glass Houses, Los Campesinos, The Hot Puppies, Pagan Wanderer Lu, Budgie, and Shakin' Stevens. Also, performers such as The Automatic, Manic Street Preachers, Lostprophets, Super Furry Animals, Catatonia and Bullet for My Valentine have links with the city and are associated with the Cardiff music scene. In 2010, Cardiff was named the UK's second 'most musical' City by PRS for Music.

Recreation

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

The lake at Roath Park, including the lighthouse erected as a memorial to Captain Scott

Cardiff is known for its extensive parkland, with parks and other such green spaces covering around 10% of the city's total area. Cardiff's main park, Bute Park (which was formerly the castle grounds) extends northwards from the top of one of Cardiff's main shopping street (Queen Street); when combined with the adjacent Llandaff Fields and Pontcanna Fields to the north west it produces a massive open space skirting the River Taff. 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. Wild open spaces include Howardian Local Nature Reserve, 32 acres (130,000 m²) of the lower Rhymney valley in Penylan noted for its Orchids, and Forest Farm Country Park, over 150 acres (0.61 km²) along the river Taff in Whitchurch.

Cardiff is one of the top ten retail destinations in the UK, with two main shopping streets (Queen Street and St. Mary Street), and three main shopping arcades; St. David's Centre, Queens Arcade and the Capitol Centre. The current expansion of St. David's Centre as part of the St. David's 2 project has seen it become one of the largest shopping centres in the United Kingdom. As well as the modern shopping arcades, the city is also home to many Victorian shopping centres, such as High Street Arcade, Castle Arcade, Wyndham Arcade, Royal Arcade and Morgan Arcade. Also of note is The Hayes, home to Spillers Records, the world's oldest record shop. Cardiff has a number of markets, including the vast Victorian indoor Cardiff Central Market and the newly established Riverside Community Market, which specialises in locally produced organic produce. Several out-of-town retail parks exist, such as Newport Road, Culverhouse Cross, Cardiff Gate and Cardiff Bay.

Media

The South Wales Echo and Western Mail

Cardiff is the Welsh base for the national television broadcasters (BBC, ITV1 Wales and S4C). Capital TV, a locally-based free-to-air analogue terrestrial television station operating on a Restricted Service Licence, served the city between 2002 and 2009.

The main local newspaper, the South Wales Echo and the national paper the Western Mail are based in Park Street in the city centre. Capital Times, Echo Extra and the South Wales edition of Metro are also based and distributed in the city. There are also a number of magazines based in the city including Buzz magazine, Primary Times and a monthly Welsh language paper called Y Dinesydd (The Citizen).

A number of other radio stations serve the city and are based in Cardiff, including Capital FM South Wales, Real Radio, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Radio Cardiff, Gold and Xpress Radio. Xfm started broadcasting from Cardiff on 29 November 2007, making the South Wales region its fourth dedicated area. Transmissions have now been replaced by Nation Radio which is based in Neath.

Google Street View is available throughout Cardiff. The introduction of this was controversial at the time, but an online poll has since voted the Millennium Stadium to be one of six locations in the UK to be specially photographed and made available on Google Street View as a 360-degree virtual tour.

Several contemporary television programmes and films are filmed in and/or set in Cardiff, such as Doctor Who, Torchwood, Casualty, Upstairs Downstairs and Pobol y Cwm.

 

 

Sport

Inside the Millennium Stadium

Cardiff plays host to many high-profile sporting events at local, national and international level and in recognition of the city's commitment to sport for all Cardiff has been awarded the title of European City of Sport 2009. Organised sports have been held in the city since the early 19th century. national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the country's sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top quality venues have attracted world famous sports events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales. In 2008/09, 61% of Cardiff residents regularly participated in sport and active recreation, the highest percentage out of all 22 local authorities in Wales.

Cardiff Arms Park

Rugby union fans around the world have long been familiar with the Cardiff Arms Park, and its successor the Millennium Stadium, which hosted the FA Cup for six years (from 2001 to 2006) it took to rebuild Wembley Stadium. In 2009, Cardiff hosted the first Ashes cricket test, between England and Australia, to be held in Wales. Cardiff will host eight football matches of the London 2012 Olympics^[151]

Cardiff City F.C. (founded 1899 as Riverside FC) played their home games at Ninian Park from 1910 until the end of the 2008–09 season. The club's new home is the Cardiff City Stadium, which they rent to the Cardiff Blues the cities professional rugby union team. Cardiff City have played in the English Football League since the 1920–21 season, climbing to Division 1 after one season. Cardiff City are the only non-English team to have won FA Cup, beating Arsenal in the 1927 final at Wembley Stadium. They were runners up to Portsmouth in the 2008 final, losing 1–0 at the new Wembley Stadium. Cardiff City currently play in the Football League Championship, the second-highest division overall in the English football league system.^[155] Cardiff has numerous smaller clubs including Grange Harlequins A.F.C., UWIC Inter Cardiff F.C., Cardiff Corinthians F.C. and Ely Rangers A.F.C. who all play in the Welsh football league system.

Cardiff Arms Park (Welsh: Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), in central Cardiff, is among the world's most famous venues—being the scene of three Welsh Grand Slams in the 1970s (1971, 1976 and 1978) and six Five Nations titles in nine years—and was the venue for Wales' games in the 1991 Rugby World Cup. The Arms Park has a sporting history dating back to at least the 1850s, when Cardiff Cricket Club (formed 1819) relocated to the site. The ground was donated to Cardiff CC in 1867 by the Marquess of Bute. Cardiff Cricket Club shared the ground with Cardiff Rugby Football Club (founded 1876)—forming Cardiff Athletic Club between them—until 1966, when the cricket section moved to Sophia Gardens. Cardiff Athletic Club and the Welsh Rugby Union established two stadia on the site—Cardiff RFC played at their stadium at the northern end of the site, and the Wales national rugby union team played international matches at the National Stadium, Cardiff Arms Park, which opened in 1970. The National Stadium was replaced by the 74,500 capacity Millennium Stadium (Welsh: Stadiwm y Mileniwm) in 1999—in time for the 1999 Rugby World Cup—and is home stadium to the Wales national rugby and football teams for international matches. In addition to Wales' Six Nations Championship and other international games, the Millennium Stadium held four matches in the 2007 Rugby World Cup and six FA Cup finals (from the 2001–02 to 2005–06 seasons) while Wembley Stadium was being rebuilt.

SWALEC Stadium

Glamorgan County Cricket Club have competed as a first class county since 1921. Their headquarters and ground is the SWALEC Stadium, Sophia Gardens, since moving from Cardiff Arms Park in 1966. The Sophia Gardens stadium underwent a multi-million pound improvement since being selected to host the first ‘England’ v Australia Test Match of the 2009 Ashes series.

Cardiff has a long association with boxing, from 'Peerless' Jim Driscoll—born in Cardiff in 1880—to more recent, high profile fights staged in the city. These include the WBC Lennox Lewis vs. Frank Bruno heavyweight championship fight at the Arms Park in 1993, and many of Joe Calzaghe's fights, between 2003 and 2007.

Cardiff's professional ice hockey team, the Cardiff Devils, play in the temporary Cardiff Arena in the Cardiff International Sports Village. They play in the 10 team professional Elite Ice Hockey League. Founded in 1986, and one of the most successful British teams during the nineties, due to rising attendances the Devils are looking to move to a new, bigger arena.

Cardiff International Pool at the International Sports Village, Cardiff Bay

The 1958 Commonwealth Games were hosted by Cardiff. The Games involved 1,130 athletes from 35 national teams competing in 94 events. One of the venues for those Games—The Wales Empire Swimming Pool—was demolished in 1998 to make way for the Millennium Stadium. The GBP32m Cardiff International Pool in Cardiff Bay, opened to the public on 12 January 2008—part of the GBP1bn International Sports Village (ISV)—is the only Olympic-standard swimming pool in Wales. When complete, the ISV complex will provide Olympic standard facilities for sports including boxing and fencing, gymnastics, judo, white water events (including canoeing and kayaking) and wrestling as well as a snow dome with real snow for skiing and snowboarding, an Arena for public ice skating and ice hockey and an hotel. Some of the sports facilities at the ISV will be used as training venues for the London 2012 Olympics.

The Millennium Stadium hosts motorsport events such as the World Rally Championship, as part of Wales Rally GB. The first ever indoor special stages of the World Rally Championship were held at the Millennium Stadium in September 2005 and have been an annual event sincve then. The British Speedway Grand Prix, one of the World Championship events, is held at the Millennium Stadium. While the track—a temporary, purpose built, shale oval—is not universally loved, the venue is considered the best of the World Championship's 11 rounds.

The Cardiff International Sports Stadium, opened 19 January 2009, replacing the Cardiff Athletics Stadium—demolished to make way for the Cardiff City Stadium—is a 4,953 capacity, multi sport/special event venue, offering fully certificated international track and field athletics facilities, including an international standard external throws area. The stadium houses the Headquarters of Welsh Athletics, the sport's governing body for Wales. The city's indoor track and field athletics sports venue is the National Indoor Athletics Centre, an international athletics and multi sports centre at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff Campus, Cyncoed.

Notable people

Many notable people have hailed from Cardiff, ranging from historical figures such as the 12th century Welsh leader Ifor Bach and the 17th century pirate Henry Morgan to more recent figures such as Roald Dahl, Ken Follett, Griff Rhys Jones and the former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones. In particular, the city has been the birthplace of sports stars such as Tanni Grey-Thompson and Colin Jackson as well as many Premier League, Football League and international footballers, such as Craig Bellamy, Gareth Bale, Ryan Giggs, Joe Ledley, and former managers of the Wales national football team Terry Yorath and John Toshack. Rugby league player's from Cardiff include Frank Whitcombe, Billy Boston and Colin Dixon. Also Baseball international's George Whitcombe & Ted Peterson

Cardiff is also well-known for its musicians such as Ivor Novello, after whom the Ivor Novello Awards are named. 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.

Transport

Cardiff is the major transport hub in Wales and is the focus for many arterial road and rail routes that connect the city with the rest of Wales, and with England.

Road

The A4232 road at Queen's Gate Tunnel

The M4 is the principal motorway in the region that connects Cardiff with Swansea to the west, and Newport and London to the east. Cardiff is served by three junctions of the M4, plus A48(M), which leads onto the M4. The A470 is another major road within the city that provides an important link to the north with the Heads of the Valleys road, mid and north Wales. 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.

Rail

Cardiff Central railway station, through which over 11 million passengers a year pass.

 

Cardiff Central railway station is the largest railway station in Wales with seven platforms, and one of the busiest in the UK.^[177] It provides direct services to nearby Bridgend and Newport, long distance 'Cross-Wales' services to Wrexham and Holyhead, and other major cities such as Birmingham, London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Cardiff Queen Street railway station is the second busiest in Wales and is the hub for routes via the Valley Lines services that connect the South Wales valleys and the Cardiff suburbs with the city centre on the former site of Temperance Town. It is located at the eastern end of the city centre, and also provides services to Cardiff Bay.

Cardiff has a suburban rail system known as Valley Lines, which is operated by Arriva Trains Wales. There are eight lines which serve 20 stations in the city, 26 in the wider urban area (including Taffs Well, Penarth and Dinas Powys) and more than 60 in the South Wales valleys and the Vale of Glamorgan.

 Education

Cardiff University's main building

Cardiff is home to four major institutions of higher education: Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, University of Glamorgan and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

Cardiff University was founded by Royal Charter in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire, is a "red brick" university and member of the Russell Group of leading research led universities, having most of its campus in Cathays and the city centre. Cardiff Metropolitan University has campuses in the Llandaff, Cyncoed and city centre areas, and is part of the confederal University of Wales. The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is a conservatoire established in 1949 and is based in the grounds of Cardiff Castle. The University of Glamorgan's Cardiff campus, Atrium, is home to the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries and is located in the city centre.

The total number of higher education students in the city is around 43,900. The city also has two further education colleges: Coleg Glan Hafren and St. David's College, although further education is offered at most high schools in the city.

Cardiff Central Library

Cardiff has 86 state primary schools (two bilingual, ten Welsh medium), 11 infant schools, ten junior schools and 20 state secondary schools, of which two are Welsh medium. There are also a number of independent schools in the city, including St John's College, Cardiff, Llandaff Cathedral School, Kings Monkton and Howell's School, a single-sex girls' school (until sixth form). Notable schools include Whitchurch High School (the largest in Wales), Fitzalan High School (which is one of the most multi-cultural state schools in the UK), and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, which is the largest Welsh medium secondary in the country.

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 Wales, and is part of the Wales Gene Park in collaboration with Cardiff University, NHS Wales and the Welsh Development Agency (WDA). Cardiff is also home of the largest regional office of the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). This office is home to the organisation's curriculum and assessment centre, which is responsible for overseeing the creation and grading of various IBDP assessments.

Health

There are seven NHS hospitals in the city, the largest of which is the University Hospital of Wales. The University Hospital of Wales is the third largest hospital in the UK and deals with most accidents and emergencies.^[186] The University Dental Hospital, which provides emergency dental treatment, is also located on this site. Llandough Hospital is located in the south of the city.

The city's newest hospital, St. David's Hospital (built behind the former building) is located in the Canton area and provides services for the elderly and children. Cardiff Royal Infirmary is located on Newport Road, near the city centre. The majority of this hospital was closed in 1999 but with the West Wing remaining open for clinic services, genitourinary medicine and rehabilitation treatment. Rookwood Hospital and Whitchurch Hospital are also located within the city, along with Rookwood Hospital and Velindre Cancer Centre. All hospitals in Cardiff are administered by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, with the exception of the Velindre site which is run by a separate trust. In addition Spire Healthcare has a private hospital in the city which is located in Pentwyn.