City Hall of Cardiff

City Hall stands in Cathays Park, a civic centre in Cardiff. It is an Edwardian Baroque building of Portland stone, opened in 1906 to house the city’s local government. The clock tower rises 59 metres and carries four gilded dials, each 3.7 metres wide. In front of the portico a rectangular pool holds fountains added in 1969 for Prince Charles’s investiture. Two war memorials flank the southern side, one for Second World War victims and another for Polish servicemen. The building replaced Cardiff’s fourth town hall and was designed by Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards after a competition. The contractor used the world’s first all-electric building site, with eight five-ton cranes. The total cost reached £129,708, and the hall was opened by Lord Bute on 29 October 1906. Inside, the Marble Hall displays statues of Welsh figures funded by Viscount Rhondda and unveiled by David Lloyd George in 1916. Visitors enter the Assembly Room, which seats 500 and is adorned with gold-leaf mermaids and bronze chandeliers. Above the main entrance, the Council Chamber sits beneath a dome supported by Italian marble pillars. Oak panelling lines the chamber, and a stained glass window shows Cardiff personified. The Marble Hall statues include Boudica, Saint David, Hywel Dda and Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, each carved in Pentelicon marble.