Cardiff, Wales, UK
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N 51° 29.088 W 003° 10.693
30U E 487625 N 5703753
Cardiff’s City Hall stands in what has been acclaimed one of the finest civic centres in Europe. It is built from Portland Stone.
Waymark Code: WM5ZH0
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/07/2009
Views: 13
The magnificent Edwardian City Hall is the finest building of this superb ensemble, but is actually the fifth to have served as the centre of local Government. Little is known of Cardiff’s original ‘Gild Hall’, but the second Town Hall stood in the middle of St Mary’s Street until it was replaced on the same site in the mid- eighteenth century. The fourth Town Hall, on the western side of St Mary’s Street, was built in 1853 and remained in use until the present City Hall opened in 1904.
The Civic buildings stand in Cathays Park, once the site of a short lived Georgian mansion (1812-25), built for the 1st Marquess of Bute. The Bute family sold the 59 acres to the town in 1898, for £159,000. Plans were drawn up for the new buildings, and the new Town Hall (Cardiff was not yet a City) was to form its focal point.
The design was by the firm of Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards, who had won the architectural competition for this prestigious commission. With a budget of £125,000, construction was begun by the local firm of E. Turner and Sons in 1900, and was completed in 1904.
The design is inspired by English and French Renaissance architecture, but has in addition all the presence and confidence of the Edwardian period, when Cardiff’s prosperity from the coal industry was at its height.
Cardiff City Hall is dominated by the 194 foot high clock tower, and the dome is surmounted by a Welsh dragon, sculpted by HC Fehr
Name: Cardiff City Hall
Address:
Cathays Park
Cardiff, Wales
CF10 3ND
Date of Construction: 1905
Architect: Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards
Web Site for City/Town/Municipality: [Web Link]
Memorials/Commemorations/Dedications: Not listed
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