Porth Teigr (meaning: "Tiger Gate") [1] is an area under development in the docks area of Cardiff Bay, in the south of Cardiff, Wales. Its development began in 2008.
The multi-use area will host the BBC drama village, with plans to link this to a new digital centre. The work will cover a large brownfield area.
The venture was formed in 2005 between urban regeneration firm igloo and the Welsh Government. The venture is responsible for developing 38 acres of land on the south side of Roath Basin in Cardiff Bay as an environmentally sustainable mixed use development including commercial, retail and residential space. The developer advertises Porth Teigr as one of the most significant waterfront developments in the UK and will transform the last major derelict site in the inner harbour area to create more than 1 million sq. ft. of commercial development space and over 1,000 new homes. [2] The development was granted permission to go ahead in 2008, to become the centre point for creative industries in Wales. [3] It was officially named Porth Teigr in November 2010, in homage to the famous Cardiff docklands area of Tiger Bay. [4]
It is anticipated that the redeveloped site will ultimately provide opportunities for some 4,000 jobs. The redevelopment was anticipated to include some 200,000 sq.ft of leisure and retail space as well as a range of housing, including affordable units claimed to be amongst the first in the UK designed to give flexibility of spaces to enable adaptation for lifestyle changes. Two dry docks will be flooded to help give the site more than 1.6 miles of waterfront, much with views across Cardiff Bay. [2]
The centrepiece of the development is the new 170,000 sq foot drama production studio complex for the BBC at Roath Lock. Extensive infrastructure and public realm works including a new bridge linking the site to the remainder of the inner harbour were completed enabling access to the new BBC Roath Lock Studios. The studios were officially opened on 12 March 2012 and will be the home to several productions, including Doctor Who (until 2021), Casualty , Pobol y Cwm and Upstairs Downstairs . [5] Casualty started filming on site in September 2011. [2]
Plans were approved for the new Digital Media Centre (DMC) at Porth Teigr in April 2011, with a design reflecting the dock area's history using brick and timber. [3] It was due to commence on site in November 2011 and be ready for occupation towards the end of 2012. The 40,000 sq ft building was to provide opportunities for small, high growth businesses and freelancers. The Digital Media Centre aimed to support the Creative Industries sector in Wales with the capacity to accommodate 400 people. [2]
A 3000 sq metre building was constructed in Porth Teigr as the long-term home of the Doctor Who Experience when it relocated from London's Olympia to Cardiff in 2012. BBC Worldwide had announced in September 2010 that it intended to relocate the attraction in Cardiff during 2012, the city of its filming and production, following consolidation of its previous Doctor Who exhibitions, including the closure of the former Doctor Who Exhibition in Cardiff's Red Dragon Centre in March 2011. [6] The Doctor Who Experience closed in September 2017 after its 5-year lease had expired.
The developers intended Porth Teigr to be a mixed development, hoping to avoid creating an area that was desolate at certain times of day. In 2014 igloo employed local residential architect Chris Loyn, initially to work on a residential development of 120 owner-occupier homes. Outline planning consent had been granted for up to 1,100 homes. [7]
Cardiff is the capital and largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of 362,310 in 2021, and forms a principal area officially known as the City and County of Cardiff. The city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingdom. Located in the south-east of Wales and in the Cardiff Capital Region, Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan and in 1974–1996 of South Glamorgan. It belongs to the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for coal when mining began in the region helped its expansion. In 1905, it was ranked as a city and in 1955 proclaimed capital of Wales. Cardiff Built-up Area covers a larger area outside the county boundary, including the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth.
Llandaff is a district, community and coterminous electoral ward in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It was incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Bishop of Llandaff, whose diocese within the Church in Wales covers the most populous area of Wales.
Pobol y Cwm is a Welsh-language soap opera produced by the BBC since October 1974. The longest-running television soap opera produced by the BBC, Pobol y Cwm was originally transmitted on BBC Cymru and later transferred to the Welsh-language station S4C when it opened in November 1982.
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 UK Government redevelopment 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.
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales.
Holby is a fictional city in the United Kingdom, the setting for the BBC medical dramas Casualty and Holby City, and the police drama HolbyBlue. It is based on the real city of Bristol, where Casualty was formerly filmed, and is notionally located in the fictional county of Wyvern in South West England, not far from the border with Wales. While Casualty has been filmed in Cardiff since 2011, Holby City was filmed in Elstree, Hertfordshire. Both shows are set in the same fictional Holby City Hospital. Holby has an airport called Holby International.
Roald Dahl Plass is a public space in Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, Wales. It is named after Cardiff-born author Roald Dahl, and is located on the coast along the south of the city centre. The square is home to the Senedd building housing the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, and the Wales Millennium Centre, a performing arts centre. The bowl-like shape of the space has made it a popular amphitheatre for hosting open-air concerts.
Crymlyn Burrows is an area of land in Wales, UK to the east of Swansea city centre, and south of Crymlyn Bog. It is bounded by Jersey Marine Beach to the south and the River Neath to the east. The land west of Baldwin's Crescent falls within the City and County of Swansea and from Baldwin's Crescent eastwards falls within Neath Port Talbot.
Broadcasting House was the headquarters of BBC Cymru Wales' radio, television and online services, situated in north Cardiff. The purpose-built facility opened in 1966 and consists of three blocks containing studios, offices and technical facilities. In 2020 the BBC moved out, transferring to BBC Cymru Wales New Broadcasting House in Central Square, Cardiff. The building was demolished in 2021 to 2022, with the site to be used for housing.
As the capital of Wales, media in Cardiff plays a large role in the city and nationwide. Employment in the sector has grown significantly in recent years, and currently provides employment for 2.1% of the city's workforce – higher than the level across Wales (1.1%) and marginally lower than that across Great Britain as a whole (2.2%).
Upper Boat Studios was a television studio complex leased to the BBC in mid-2006, and formerly operated by BBC Wales.
Llanishen Reservoir is a Victorian reservoir in north Cardiff, Wales. The reservoir is one of the reservoirs constructed as part of the Taff Fawr scheme for supplying water to Cardiff and was completed in 1886. It forms part of the Nant Fawr Corridor from the top of Roath Park to the countryside beyond Cyncoed.
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.
Bus transport in Cardiff, the capital and most populous city in Wales, forms the major part of the city's public transport network, which also includes an urban rail network, Waterbus and international airport. Cardiff is a major city of the United Kingdom and a centre of employment, retail, business, government, culture, media, sport and higher education.
Baycar is a bus service in Cardiff, serving the city centre and Cardiff Bay.
BBC Roath Lock Studios is a television production studio that houses BBC drama productions including Doctor Who, Casualty, and Pobol y Cwm. The centre topped out on 20 February 2011 and filming for such productions commenced in autumn of the same year.
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.