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Pierhead Building

Commercial buildings completed in 1897Gothic Revival architecture in WalesGovernment buildings in WalesGrade I listed buildings in CardiffHistory museums in Wales
Landmarks in CardiffMuseums in CardiffSenedd buildings
Adeilad y Pierhead, Caerdydd
Adeilad y Pierhead, Caerdydd

The Pierhead Building (Welsh: Adeilad y Pierhead) is a Grade I listed building in Cardiff Bay, Wales. One of Cardiff's most familiar landmarks, it was built in 1897 as the headquarters for the Bute Dock Company. The Pierhead Building is part of the estate of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh: Senedd Cymru), which also includes the Senedd building and Tŷ Hywel. The clock on the building is unofficially known as the "Baby Big Ben" or the "Big Ben of Wales".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Pierhead Building (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Pierhead Building
Harbour Drive, Cardiff Butetown

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Latitude Longitude
N 51.463526 ° E -3.163412 °
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Pierhead

Harbour Drive
CF99 1NA Cardiff, Butetown
Wales, United Kingdom
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Adeilad y Pierhead, Caerdydd
Adeilad y Pierhead, Caerdydd
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Cardiff Bay
Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay (Welsh: Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as 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. Surrounding the lake is a 4.25 sq mi (11.0 square kilometres) area of redeveloped former derelict docklands which shares its name. The area is situated between Cardiff city centre and Penarth, in the communities of Butetown and Grangetown. Its waterfront is home to notable attractions, in particular regarding Welsh politics; with devolved institutions such as the Senedd building (housing the Senedd, the Welsh Parliament), Pierhead Building and Tŷ Hywel; and cultural attractions including the Wales Millennium Centre and Norwegian Church. The presence of devolved institutions in Cardiff Bay has led to its name's use as a metonym for devolved Welsh politics. According to Cardiff Council, the creation of Cardiff Bay is regarded as one of the most successful regeneration projects in the United Kingdom. The 'bay' was formerly tidal, with access to the sea limited to a couple of hours each side of high water but now provides 24-hour access through three locks.The Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve is situated along the northern edge of the lake, on the site of a former salt marsh.

Tŷ Hywel
Tŷ Hywel

Tŷ Hywel (Hywel House or Hywel's House) is a building in Cardiff, Wales, used by the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh: Senedd Cymru; formerly the National Assembly for Wales). It is named after the medieval king Hywel Dda (Howell the Good), King of Deheubarth in South West Wales. The building was previously known as Crickhowell House (Welsh: Tŷ Crughywel), after the former Secretary of State for Wales, Lord Crickhowell. It houses Members of the Senedd and their staff, as well as staff of the Senedd Commission. The Welsh Government also operates from the building and occupies one whole floor and part of another. It is leased by the Senedd under the Government of Wales Act 1998.The building was opened in 1991 and has a total floor area of 11,583 m2 (124,680 sq ft). It is built of red brick and is connected to the Senedd debating chamber in Cardiff Bay. Tŷ Hywel houses staff of the Senedd Commission, MSs, the First Minister and other ministers. Crickhowell House was used as a temporary debating chamber for the National Assembly for Wales from 1999 until its new building, also originally known as the Senedd, was opened in 2006. On 25 June 2008 the Prince of Wales officially opened Siambr Hywel, the National Assembly's youth debating chamber and education centre, based on the former debating chamber in Tŷ Hywel.Tŷ Hywel is part of the Senedd estate in Cardiff Bay, along with the Senedd building and the Grade 1 listed Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay. Two covered link bridges connect the Senedd building to Tŷ Hywel. Construction of the link bridges began in September 2004 and they were completed by December 2005.

Senedd building
Senedd building

The Senedd building (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈsɛnɛð]) in Cardiff houses the debating chamber and three committee rooms of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; Welsh: Senedd Cymru, formerly the National Assembly for Wales). The 5,308-square-metre (57,100 sq ft) Senedd building was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 1 March 2006, Saint David's Day, and the total cost was £69.6 million, which included £49.7 million in construction costs. The Senedd building is part of the Senedd estate that includes Tŷ Hywel and the Pierhead Building. After two selection processes, it was decided that the debating chamber would be on a new site, called Site 1E, at Capital Waterside in Cardiff Bay. The Pritzker Prize-winning architect Lord Rogers of Riverside won an international architectural design competition, managed by RIBA Competitions, to design the building. It was designed to be sustainable with the use of renewable technologies and energy efficiency integrated into its design. The building was awarded an "Excellent" certification by the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), the highest ever awarded in Wales, and was nominated for the 2006 Stirling Prize. The Senedd building was constructed in two phases, the first in 2001 and the second from August 2003 until it was handed over to the then National Assembly for Wales in February 2006. Between phases, the National Assembly changed contractors and the project's management structure, but retained Lord Rogers of Riverside as the scheme architect. The building was nearly six times over budget and four years and 10 months late, compared to the original estimates of the project in 1997. Total costs rose due to unforeseen security measures after the 11 September attacks, and because the National Assembly did not have an independent cost appraisal of the project until December 2000, three years after the original estimate. Phase 2 costs rose by less than 6% over budget, and that phase was six months late.

Murder of Lynette White

Lynette Deborah White (5 July 1967 – 14 February 1988) was murdered on 14 February 1988 in Cardiff, Wales. South Wales Police issued a photofit image of a bloodstained, white male seen in the vicinity at the time of the murder but were unable to trace the man. In November 1988, the police charged five black and mixed-race men with White's murder, although none of the scientific evidence discovered at the crime scene could be linked to them. In November 1990, following what was then the longest murder trial in British history, three of the men were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. In December 1992, the convictions were ruled unsafe and quashed by the Court of Appeal after it was decided that the police investigating the murder had acted improperly. The wrongful conviction of the three men has been called one of the most egregious miscarriages of justice in recent times. The police insisted that the men had been released purely on a legal technicality, that they would be seeking no other suspects, and resisted calls for the case to be reopened. In January 2002, new DNA technology enabled forensic scientists led by Angela Gallop to obtain a reliable crime scene DNA profile. The extracted profile led police to the real killer, Jeffrey Gafoor, who confessed to White's murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Gafoor received a shorter minimum tariff (the length of time before a prisoner may be considered for parole) than had been given to the wrongfully convicted men, due to the reduction for a guilty plea, highlighting a controversial feature of the sentencing guidelines. In 2004, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began a review of the conduct of the police during the original inquiry. Over the next 12 months around 30 people were arrested in connection with the investigation, 19 of whom were serving or retired police officers. In 2007, three of the prosecution witnesses who gave evidence at the original murder trial were convicted of perjury and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. In 2011, eight former police officers were charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Their subsequent trial was the largest police corruption trial in British criminal history. A further four police officers were due to be tried on the same charges in 2012. In November 2011, the trial collapsed when the defence claimed that copies of files which they said they should have seen had instead been destroyed. As a result, the judge ruled that the defendants could not receive a fair trial and they were acquitted. In January 2012, the missing documents were found, still in the original box in which they had been sent to South Wales Police by the IPCC.