Editing Cardiff (section)

===City and capital city status===
{{Main|Capital of Wales}}
[[File:View of St. John the baptist church, 1852.jpeg|upright|thumb|[[St John the Baptist Church, Cardiff]], the only medieval building next to Cardiff Castle to still be in city centre. Seen here in 1852]]
[[File:Cardiff (15803795227).jpg|thumb|[[National Museum Cardiff|National Museum of Wales, Cardiff]]]]
[[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|King Edward VII]] granted Cardiff [[City status in the United Kingdom|city status]] on 28 October 1905.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beckett |first=J.V. |title=City Status in the British Isles, 1830–2002 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Ltd |year=2005 |page=2 |isbn=978-0-7546-5067-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jqqSSOyjBEoC&pg=PP8 |access-date=2 October 2008 |archive-date=28 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528130543/https://books.google.com/books?id=jqqSSOyjBEoC&pg=PP8 |url-status=live }}</ref> It acquired a Roman Catholic cathedral in 1916. Later, more national institutions came to the city, including the [[National Museum Cardiff|National Museum of Wales]], the [[Welsh National War Memorial]], and the [[University of Wales]] Registry Building, but it was denied the [[National Library of Wales]], partly because the library's founder, Sir John Williams, considered Cardiff to have "a non-Welsh population".<ref name="Encyclopedia of Wales" />

After a brief post-war boom, Cardiff docks entered a prolonged decline in the [[interwar period]]. By 1936, trade was at less than half its value in 1913, reflecting the slump in demand for [[South Wales coalfield|Welsh coal]].<ref name="Encyclopedia of Wales" /> Bomb damage in the [[Cardiff Blitz]] of World War II included the devastation of [[Llandaff Cathedral]], and in the immediate postwar years, the city's link with the Bute family came to an end.

The city was recognised as the [[Capital of Wales|capital city of Wales]] on 20 December 1955, in a written reply by the [[Home Secretary]], [[Gwilym Lloyd George, 1st Viscount Tenby|Gwilym Lloyd George]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1955-12-20/debates/f75e8a8b-79d6-42d2-96be-80f271ffe0b1/CapitalOfPrincipality(Cardiff) |title=Capital of Principality (Cardiff) (Hansard, 20 December 1955) |website=hansard.millbanksystems.com |access-date=30 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830234559/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1955/dec/20/capital-of-principality-cardiff |archive-date=30 August 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Caernarfon]] had also vied for the title.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Cardiff as Capital of Wales: Formal Recognition by Government |newspaper=The Times |date=21 December 1955}}</ref> Welsh local authorities had been divided: only 76 out of 161 chose Cardiff in a 1924 poll organised by the ''South Wales Daily News''.<ref name="Johnes 2012">{{Cite journal |author=Prof. Martin Johnes |url=https://www.academia.edu/716868 |title=Cardiff: The Making and Development of the Capital City of Wales |year=2012 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=509–28 |journal=Contemporary British History |doi=10.1080/13619462.2012.676911 |s2cid=144368404 |access-date=11 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511111542/https://www.academia.edu/716868/Cardiff_The_Making_and_Development_of_the_Capital_City_of_Wales |archive-date=11 May 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> The subject was not debated again until 1950, and meanwhile Cardiff took steps to promote its "Welshness". The stalemate between Cardiff and cities such as Caernarfon and Aberystwyth was not broken until Cardiganshire County Council decided to support Cardiff; and in a new local authority vote, 134 out of 161 voted for Cardiff.<ref name="Johnes 2012" />

Cardiff therefore celebrated two important [[anniversary|anniversaries]] in 2005. The ''Encyclopedia of Wales'' notes that the decision to recognise the city as the capital of Wales "had more to do with the fact that it contained marginal [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] constituencies than any reasoned view of what functions a Welsh capital should have." Although the city hosted the [[Commonwealth Games]] in 1958, Cardiff became a centre of national administration only with the establishment of the [[Welsh Office]] in 1964, which later prompted the creation of various other public bodies such as the [[Arts Council of Wales]] and the [[Welsh Development Agency]], most of which were based in Cardiff.

[[File:Cardiff Bay at night.jpg|thumb|Redevelopment in the city's historic Cardiff Bay area]]
The East Moors Steelworks closed in 1978 and Cardiff lost population in the 1980s,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_table_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TPop&u_id=10150530&c_id=10001043&add=N |title=Cardiff Wales Through Time – Population Statistics |access-date=20 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210191149/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data_cube_table_page.jsp?data_theme=T_POP&data_cube=N_TPop&u_id=10150530&c_id=10001043&add=N |archive-date=10 December 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> consistent with a wider pattern of counter-urbanisation in Britain. However, it recovered to become one of the few cities outside London where population grew in the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cbcb/census1.pdf |title=The Growth and Decline of Cities and Regions |date=1 July 2004 |access-date=20 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528025505/http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/cbcb/census1.pdf |archive-date=28 May 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> During this period the [[Cardiff Bay Development Corporation]] was promoting the [[Urban renewal|redevelopment]] of south Cardiff; an evaluation of the regeneration of Cardiff Bay published in 2004 concluded that the project had "reinforced the competitive position of Cardiff" and "contributed to a massive improvement in the quality of the built environment, although it had "failed "to attract the major inward investors originally anticipated".<ref>Esys Consulting Ltd, Evaluation of Regeneration in Cardiff Bay. A report for the Welsh Assembly Government, December 2004.</ref>

In the [[1997 Welsh devolution referendum]], Cardiff voters rejected the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales by 55.4% to 44.2% on a 47% turnout, which Denis Balsom partly ascribed to a general preference in Cardiff and some other parts of Wales for a British rather than exclusively Welsh [[national identity|identity]].<ref>Denis Balsom, "The referendum result". James Barry Jones and Denis Balsom, eds: ''The Road to the National Assembly for Wales''. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.swansea.ac.uk/history/research/Wales%20the%20Postnation.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408201247/http://www.swansea.ac.uk/history/research/Wales%20the%20Postnation.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 April 2008 |title=Wales: The Post-Nation |access-date=20 May 2008}}</ref> The relative lack of local support for the Assembly and difficulties between the Welsh Office and Cardiff Council in acquiring the originally preferred venue, [[Cardiff City Hall]], encouraged other local authorities to bid to house the Assembly.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/34653.stm |title=Where To Now for the Welsh Assembly? |date=25 November 1997 |publisher=BBC Wales |access-date=20 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115093512/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/34653.stm |archive-date=15 January 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ossw.wales.gov.uk/2006/foi/foi_20060920_15.pdf |title=Welsh Assembly Accommodation |date=2 October 1997 |access-date=20 May 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528025511/http://ossw.wales.gov.uk/2006/foi/foi_20060920_15.pdf |archive-date=28 May 2008}}</ref> However, the Assembly was eventually located at [[Tŷ Hywel]] in Cardiff Bay in 1999. In 2005, a new debating chamber on an adjacent site, designed by [[Richard Rogers]], was opened.