Places
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Wales Fact and Fiction Places |
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Cardiff Castle and town in the 18th Century
Cardiff's port, known as Tiger Bay, was once one of the busiest ports in the world. After a long period of neglect, as Cardiff Bay it is now being revived as a popular area for arts, entertainment and nightlife. Much of the explosive growth has been due to the building of the Cardiff Barrage. The Welsh National Opera will move into the Wales Millennium Centre in the autumn of 2004. At the 2001 census, the population of Cardiff was recorded as 305,340. People from Cardiff are called Cardiffians. The name Cardiff is an Anglicisation of Welsh name "Caerdydd". There is a lot of uncertainty concerning the origin of "Caerdydd", "Caer" means fort or castle, but it is unclear what "Dydd" means. 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 Antonius Didius established a fort in Cardiff. Considering this it is now believed that Cardiff means the fort of Antonius 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 the Marquess of Bute and the architect William Burges. It is a university town and has four universities in the city:
The city has a professional football team, Cardiff City F.C., 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. As well as the castle, Cardiff is home to the National Assembly for Wales, St. Davids Hall, the National Museum of Wales, and Cathays Park (including municipal buildings modelled on those in New Delhi). Caroline Street is one of the third oldest streets in Cardiff and is a major link between two of the busiest streets. 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, or Chip Alley, and is a popular post-club location. 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. Cardiff County Council is not controlled by any individual political party. The Liberal Democrats have 33 councillors, Labour have 27, the Conservatives have 12 and Plaid Cymru have 3.
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