Built-up area · Wales
Cardiff
Explore Cardiff’s urban change through the Bay, from tidal coal docks to a freshwater waterfront with cultural and civic landmarks.
Quick facts
- Type of place
- Built-up area
- Nation
- Wales
- Official identifier
- gss:W45000596
- Part of
- Wales (Nation)
Overview
Cardiff’s built-up area overlaps the principal areas of Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and Newport. This is a settlement footprint, with a different purpose from a council-area definition. Cardiff Bay provides a focus for exploring urban change. It developed from tidal docks used for Welsh coal exports into a district around a freshwater lake. Its waterfront now combines cultural, scientific, civic and leisure uses.
This page covers the built-up area. Its boundaries can differ from those of the local council area.
Culture, landmarks and the waterfront
Wales Millennium Centre presents performances, while Techniquest explores science. The Senedd and Pierhead are prominent landmarks, and Mermaid Quay forms part of the leisure waterfront. These places illustrate different uses of the modern Bay. A wetlands reserve offers another setting, and the barrage embankment provides views across the Bay and towards the Severn Estuary. These waterfront examples give this settlement profile its focus; they do not define the statistical built-up boundary.
Related places
- Shares some of its area with: Vale of Glamorgan (Principal area) Source · bua-overlaps-2022
- Shares some of its area with: Cardiff (Principal area) Source · bua-overlaps-2022
- Shares some of its area with: Newport (Principal area) Source · bua-overlaps-2022