City Hall, Cardiff

File:Town Hall, Cardiff.jpeg's Town Hall on St Mary Street]]

The complex was commissioned to replace Cardiff's fourth town hall on the western side of St Mary's Street, which was completed in 1853.{{cite book |last1=Milnes |first1=J |title=Photographic Memories- Cardiff |date=2000 |publisher=The Francis Frith Collection |location=Salisbury |isbn=9781845463960 |page=50}} Following a design competition, the firm of Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards was selected to design the city's fifth town hall and adjacent law courts in the Edwardian Baroque style. The contractor, E. Turner and Sons, used the world's first all-electrically operated building site, including eight 5-ton cranes to lift the stone blocks. The total building cost was £129,708 (with the concurrently-built courts costing £96,583).{{cite book |last=Breverton |first=Terry|author-link=Terry Breverton |title=Wales' 1000 Best Heritage Sites |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8TaIAwAAQBAJ&dq=cardiff+city+hall&pg=PP36 |publisher=Amberley Publishing |year=2013 |format=e-Book |isbn=978-1-4456-2013-8}} As Cardiff received its city charter in 1905 while construction was underway, the current building is known as City Hall. The new building was officially opened by Lord Bute on 29 October 1906.{{cite news |title=Cardiff City Hall and Law Courts – The Opening Ceremonies |url=https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3428154/3428158 |work=The Cardiff Times |pages=4–5 |date=3 November 1906 |place=Cardiff |via=Welsh Newspapers Online |access-date=15 November 2020}}

The distinctive clock tower is {{cvt|59|m|ft}} in height and has a {{cvt|3.7|m|ft|adj=mid|-diameter}} gilded dial on each of its four faces. The clock mechanism includes an hour bell and four quarter bells which are each inscribed with mottoes in English or Welsh.Cardiff Council City Hall Cardiff: Visitor Information Guide Second edition, 2006

In front of the entrance portico is a rectangular pool with fountains. The fountains were created to mark the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in July 1969.

On the southern side of the building are two memorials: the memorial on the right is dedicated to victims of the Second World War while the one on the left is dedicated to the Polish soldiers, airmen and sailors who gave their lives during that war.{{Cite web |url=https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/node/116634 |title=Polish memorial |publisher=War Memorials Online |access-date=15 April 2020}}

The first floor landing of City Hall is decorated with statues in Pentelicon marble of famous figures from Welsh history. These were funded by a gift from David Alfred Thomas, 1st Viscount Rhondda; the individuals commemorated were decided by a competition in the Western Mail newspaper. The Marble Hall with completed statues was unveiled by David Lloyd George, then Secretary of State for War, on 27 October 1916.{{cite book |last=Chappell |first=Edgar L. |title=Cardiff's Civic Centre: A historical guide |publisher=Priory Press |year=1946}}, pp. 21–6

{{multiple image|align=right

|header=Statues in the Marble Hall

|caption_align=center

|image1=Hywel Dda at Cardiff City Hall.jpg|width1=89|caption1=Hywel Dda

|image2=Llywelyn the Last at Cardiff City Hall.jpg|width2=99|caption2=Llywelyn ap Gruffudd

|image3=Dafydd ap Gwilym at Cardiff City Hall.jpg|width3=98|caption3=Dafydd ap Gwilym

|image4=Owain Glyndŵr at Cardiff City Hall.jpg|width4=109|caption4=Owain Glyndŵr

|image5=St David statue, Cardiff City Hall.jpg|width5=117|caption5=Saint David

}}

The figures portrayed are as follows:

• Boudica (1st-century queen of the Iceni) by James Havard Thomas
• Saint David (6th-century patron saint of Wales) by Sir William Goscombe John
• Hywel Dda (king and codifier of Welsh law, 10th century) by F. W. Pomeroy
• Gerald of Wales (scholar and writer in the 12th and 13th centuries) by Henry Poole
• Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the last ruling Prince of Wales) by Henry Alfred Pegram
• Dafydd ap Gwilym (Welsh poet of the 14th century) by W. W. Wagstaff
• Owain Glyndŵr (Welsh patriot and warrior of the 14th and 15th centuries) by Alfred Turner
• Henry VII (founder of the Tudor dynasty, 15th and 16th centuries) by Ernest Gillick
• Bishop William Morgan (translated the Bible into Welsh in the 16th century) by Thomas John Clapperton
• William Williams, Pantycelyn (revivalist and hymn writer, 18th century) by Leonard Stanford Merrifield
• Sir Thomas Picton (general at Waterloo, 18th and 19th centuries) by T. Mewburn Crook

In July 2020, Cardiff Council voted to remove the marble statue of Sir Thomas Picton, on account of his links to slavery.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-53512384 |title=Statue of slave owner Thomas Picton to be removed from Cardiff City Hall |publisher=BBC |date=23 July 2020 |access-date=25 July 2020}}{{cite web |url=https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2020-07-23/statue-of-slave-owner-sir-thomas-picton-to-be-removed-from-cardiff-city-hall |title=Work begins on removing statue of slave owner Sir Thomas Picton in Cardiff after motion passed |publisher=ITV |date=24 July 2020 |access-date=25 July 2020}}

File:Assembly Room, City Hall, Cardiff.jpg

This room has hosted royalty, international statesmen and diplomats, and can seat 500 diners. It is used for various ceremonies, conferences and events during the year. It is decorated with mouldings picked out in gold leaf, of mermaids and other sea creatures. Three large bronze chandeliers are contemporary to the original architects' design.

File:Council Chamber, Cardiff City Hall (1).jpg

This is located above the main entrance portico and directly below the main dome of the building. Hanging from the dome is a bronze chandelier designed by Edwin Alfred Rickards. The arrangement is unusual in that the seating is set in a circular pattern, whereas normally British council chambers have semicircular seating. The chamber was designed to host Cardiff's Council meetings (which have subsequently been relocated to County Hall in the Atlantic Wharf area). The dome of City Hall is supported by four massive pillars of Italian marble with bronze Ionic capitals. The chamber is paneled throughout in oak. The plaster work is by G.P. Bankart and the stained glass window depicts a personification of the City of Cardiff by Alfred Garth Jones, dated 1905.

The cover of the Catatonia single "Mulder and Scully" has a UFO above the building similar to the movie poster for Independence Day.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-7JWNUqNnrAC&pg=PT341 |title=Cerys, Catatonia And The Rise Of Welsh Pop |first=David |last=Owens |publisher=Ebury Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0091874124}}

• Grade I listed buildings in Cardiff
• List of tallest buildings in Cardiff

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|indent=y|colwidth=30em}}

• {{citation |last=Chappell |first=Edgar L. |year=1946 |title=Cardiff's Civic Centre: A historical guide |location=Cardiff |publisher=Priory Press}}
• {{citation |last=Egan |first=T. M. |year=1989 |title="Cardiff's Own": Paintings from the City Hall |location=Cardiff |publisher=Welsh Arts Council}}
• {{citation |last=Fellows |first=Richard |year=1995 |title=Edwardian Architecture: Style and technology |publisher=Lund Humphries |location=London}}
• {{citation |last=Gaffney |first=Angela |year=1998 |title='A National Valhalla for Wales': D. A. Thomas and the Welsh historical sculpture scheme, 1910–1916. |volume=5 |periodical=Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion |pages=131–44 |url=http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1386666/llgc-id:1425397/llgc-id:1425530/get650/ |access-date=2 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102210557/http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id%3A1386666/llgc-id%3A1425397/llgc-id%3A1425530/get650/ |archive-date=2 January 2014 |url-status=dead}}
• {{citation |last=Hilling |first=John B. |year=1973 |title=Cardiff and the Valleys: Architecture and townscape |location=London |publisher=Lund Humphries}}
• {{citation |last=Hilling |first=John B.|author-mask={{long dash}}|date=2016|title=The History and Architecture of Cardiff Civic Centre: Black Gold, White City|location=Cardiff|publisher=University of Wales Press }}
• {{citation |last=Morey |first=Ian |year=2008 |title=British Provincial Civic Design and the Building of Late-Victorian and Edwardian Cities |location=Lewiston, NY and Lampeter |publisher=E. Mellen Press}}
• {{citation |last=Newman |first=John |year=1995 |title=Glamorgan |series=The Buildings of Wales |location=London |publisher=Penguin}}
• {{citation |last=Service |first=Alastair |year=1979 |title=Edwardian Architecture: A handbook to building design in Britain, 1890–1914 |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|City Hall, Cardiff}}

• {{Official website|http://www.cardiffcityhall.com/}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050909140633/http://100welshheroes.com/en/article/90yearsago The history of the Marble Hall]

{{Culture in Cardiff}}

{{Landmarks and Visitor Attractions in Cardiff}}

{{Politics and Government in Cardiff}}

{{Government buildings in Wales}}

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Category:Politics of Cardiff

Category:Landmarks in Cardiff

Category:Cathays Park

Category:Domes in the United Kingdom

Category:Grade I listed buildings in Cardiff

Category:Grade I listed government buildings

Cardiff City Hall

Category:Government buildings completed in 1906

Category:Edwardian architecture in the United Kingdom

Category:Government buildings with domes

Category:1906 establishments in Wales

Category:Baroque Revival architecture in the United Kingdom