Atlantic Wharf (Welsh : Glanfa Iwerydd) is a southern area of the city of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily an area of new houses and apartments located on the west side of the disused Bute East Dock and to the east of Lloyd George Avenue. It also includes a number of refurbished dock warehouses, modern hotels, the Red Dragon Centre and Cardiff Council's County Hall. Atlantic Wharf lies in the Butetown electoral division of Cardiff and the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency for the UK Parliament and the Senedd.
The Bute East Dock (originally called the East Bute Dock) was constructed to ease pressure on the existing Bute Dock in the 1850s. It was opened by the 12-year-old Third Marquess of Bute on 14 September 1859. [1] The new dock was 1,310 m in length and up to 152m wide. [1] It was surrounded by railway sidings and large warehouses. Eventually the Bute East Dock was closed in 1970. The railway sidings were removed. [2]
Only after 1980 did redevelopment begin around the disused dock. [3] The Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was set up in the late 1980s to drive regeneration of the Docks area. [3] Atlantic Wharf grew to include housing, new businesses, hotels and the conversion of three large derelict dock warehouses in the close vicinity of Bute East Dock. [3] In 1988 the County Council built a new council headquarters building at Atlantic Wharf to reinforce the regeneration initiatives. It has been described as a "remarkable gesture of faith [by] the South Glamorgan County Council". [4]
A new multiplex cinema and leisure complex was built nearby, known as Atlantic Wharf Leisure Village (now the Red Dragon Centre). Collingdon Road was landscaped and redeveloped to form a mile-long boulevard to Cardiff Bay. Work was completed in 2000 and the road was renamed Lloyd George Avenue.
With approximately 1,500 houses and flats and no representative of its own on Cardiff Council, in 2016 the Atlantic Wharf Residents’ Association demanded that Atlantic Wharf be made into a separate electoral ward. [5] There are also plans to regenerate the area with a large mixed-use development situated on a 30 acres (12 ha) site; [6] this would include new council offices, waterfront apartments, a replacement leisure complex, hotel and "immersive" arts theatre to sit alongside a new 15,000 capacity indoor arena. [7] [8]
The district of Newtown was constructed on the initiative of the Marquess of Bute in the mid-1800s to provide housing for the labourers who were building the new docks. The area consisted of six streets in the far north edge of what is now Atlantic Wharf. The streets were occupied mainly by Irish immigrants from Cork. [9] Over 100 years after its creation, the buildings of Newtown were subject to compulsory purchase and were demolished in 1970 for redevelopment. [9] The area eventually became an industrial estate next to the mainline railway.
Tiger Bay was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. Following the building of the Cardiff Barrage, which dams the tidal rivers, Ely and Taff, to create a body of water, it is referred to as Cardiff Bay. Tiger Bay is Wales’ oldest multi-ethnic community, with sailors and workers from over 50 countries settling there from the mid-19th century onwards.
Cardiff Bay is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of water was converted into a 500-acre (2.0 km2) lake as part of a pre-devolution UK Government regeneration project, involving the damming of the rivers by the Cardiff Bay Barrage in 1999. The barrage impounds the rivers from the Severn Estuary, providing flood defence and the creation of a permanent non-tidal high water lake with limited access to the sea, serving as a core feature of the redevelopment of the area in the 1990s.
Butetown is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose title the area was named.
The Butetown branch line, also known as the Cardiff Bay Line, is a 1-mile-6-chain (1.7 km) commuter railway line in Cardiff, Wales from Cardiff Bay to Cardiff Queen Street. The service pattern formerly comprised a mixture of shuttle services along the branch and through trains along the Rhymney Line to Caerphilly, or the Coryton Line to Coryton, but after December 2005 was a shuttle service from Queen Street station. However, in May 2024, direct trains to Pontypridd were restored alongside shuttle services. The normal journey time is four minutes.
Cardiff Bay railway station, formerly Cardiff Bute Road, is a station serving the Cardiff Bay and Butetown areas of Cardiff, Wales. It is the southern terminus of the Butetown branch line 1 mile (1.5 km) south of Cardiff Queen Street.
Bute Street is a street in Cardiff, Wales. It links Cardiff Bay and Butetown with Cardiff city centre. It now has no road number. It runs from the dockside of the Mermaid Quay complex in the south, which is now a pedestrian zone, to the junction of Bute Terrace (A4160) in the north.
The County Hall is a municipal building located beside the disused Bute East Dock in the Atlantic Wharf area of Butetown, Cardiff. Formerly the home of South Glamorgan County Council, it is now the headquarters of Cardiff Council.
The Red Dragon Centre is an indoor entertainment complex in southern Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It was originally known as the Atlantic Wharf Leisure Village when it opened in August 1997. The complex features restaurants, cafés, a Hollywood Bowl bowling alley with arcade amusements, an Odeon multiplex cinema, a casino, gym and an on-site car park.
Lloyd George Avenue, originally known as Bute Avenue, is an avenue in Cardiff, Wales. Roughly one mile long, the road links the Inner Harbour of Cardiff Bay to Cardiff city centre and forms part of the A470 road. It runs parallel to Bute Street and the Butetown Branch Line. Landscaping on the route was completed in 2000, and it was renamed after the Liberal prime minister David Lloyd George. The site of the avenue had been known as Collingdon Road, which was described as a "grimy industrial area of small factories and workshops, employing hundreds of people".
Cardiff Docks is a port in southern Cardiff, Wales. At its peak, the port was one of the largest dock systems in the world with a total quayage of almost 7 mi (11 km). Once the main port for the export of South Wales coal, the Port of Cardiff remains active in the import and export of containers, steel, forest products and dry and liquid bulks.
Architecture in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, dates from Norman times to the present day. Its urban fabric is largely Victorian and later, reflecting Cardiff's rise to prosperity as a major coal port in the 19th century. No single building style is associated with Cardiff, but the city centre retains several 19th and early 20th century shopping arcades.
The Craft in the Bay Gallery is an exhibition and craft retail area located at the south end of Lloyd George Avenue, Cardiff Bay. It was designed by the architect Chris Elford. It is operated by a charitable arts organisation, The Makers Guild in Wales. The gallery is opposite the Wales Millennium Centre and close to the Senedd building. The building consists of the relocated and refurbished Grade II listed “D” Shed, previously an industrial warehouse located next to Bute East Dock.
There are many listed buildings in Cardiff Bay, part of Cardiff, capital city of Wales. A listed building is one considered to be of special architectural, historical or cultural significance, and has restrictions on amendments or demolition. Buildings are listed as either Grade I, II* and II buildings lists, with the Grade I being the most important.
Barry Waterfront or Waterfront Barry, known locally as The Waterfront, is a retail park and neighbourhood of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, built from redeveloped land from the old Barry Docks, to the southwest of the town centre and to the immediate west of Barry Dock Offices. It is accessed via the Gladstone Bridge from Broad Street, to the south of Barry Memorial Hall, and along the Ffordd-Y-Mileniwm road from the southeast, leading on from Cardiff Road approached via Palmerston.
Loudoun Square is a residential square in Cardiff, Wales. Described as "the heart of the old Tiger Bay", the square is the location of two of Cardiff's few residential tower blocks, as well as shops, a pub, church, health centre and community centre.
The Butetown electoral ward of Cardiff covers the Cardiff Bay area of the city, electing a councillor to Cardiff Council.
Mount Stuart Square is a residential and commercial square in Cardiff, Wales. It is located in the Butetown area of the city. Originally developed in the late 1800s as a residential location for nearby dock workers, it quickly became a centre for upscale residential properties which revolved around the main square. By 1900, commercial activity had taken its place, dominated by the Coal Exchange, which occupied the once open central space. The square contains a high concentration of listed buildings, which represent a range of architectural styles and some of Cardiff's finest examples of late 19th and early 20th century commercial architecture. Mount Stuart Square area was designated a Conservation Area in July 1980.
Holder Mathias Architects Limited, often simply known as Holder Mathias or Holder Mathias Architects, is an architectural firm and private limited company based in London, England. The firm was founded in 1969, in Cardiff, Wales, by architects Peter Mathias and Tim Holder as the Holder and Mathias Partnership. It has been responsible for the Atlantic Wharf development, the eastern portion of the Cardiff Bay redevelopment project, including Crickhowell House and the Red Dragon Centre, and other projects in the United Kingdom and Europe.