Cardiffians

PRESENTING UNIQUE PHOTOS OF OLD CARDIFF FOR OVER 15 YEARS!

A PHOTOGRAPHIC AND HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF CARDIFF

Capital City of Wales

The Norman Keep at Cardiff Castle
The Norman Keep at Cardiff Castle
© Matthew Witty

Welcome to Cardiffians.co.uk - online since 2005

This educational website is aimed at those who seek information, about how the medieval settlement of Cardiff has been shaped by important historical events - and became the bustling, classy, media and tourist friendly capital city of Wales it is today.

The pages within will provide you with facts and figures, the history of the suburbs, and a detailed timeline of the development of the city.  Also, there is a selection of profiles on some famous 'Cardiffians' - people who have a personal connection with Cardiff.

Over 1,000 photos of old Cardiff and its citizens!

The highlight of this site is the ever growing selection of images depicting Cardiff in its bygone days.  Many of these are exclusive to Cardiffians, and come from either my personal collection, or have been graciously donated by people from all over the world.

Change is relentless...

Even as the city centre continues to undergo it's biggest sustained re-development in a century, Cardiff retains a lot of character that other modern cities often lack in the 21st century.

Progress is a necessity; but it's a loss to everyone that so many buildings and streets of long ago have been demolished and cleared away, with hardly any thought about the important historical and social qualities being lost in the process.

This is your opportunity to look upon Cardiff of old - to see just much Europe's youngest capital has changed in such a short space of time.

I really hope you enjoy your virtual visit through the history of Cardiff.

Recent updates: March 2024

New images finally being uploaded!

The past few years have seen the site updates put on hiatus - but the work behind the scenes never ends. Hundreds of hours have been spent scanning, sorting, identifying and restoring hundreds of new images. Check out the galleries for the latest uploads.

Each time I update a gallery, I'll be upgrading the resolution of images from 1280 to 1600 pixels, so that even more detail can be seen.

Copyright logos will be made more prominent as each gallery is upgraded. This is due to increasing incidents of image theft.

Past updates: October 2023

Where has the clickable Cardiff image map gone?

I have created a new Google API account, and was working on reproducing a more interactive map with markers for images.  I was hoping to have this done by end of 2020 - but other priorities took over.

When will the forum be back?

The forum was hacked in June 2020, and caused issues across the site.  Since then it has been disabled completely.  I am not yet knowledgeble enough to figure out how I can wipe the old installation, and reinstall, without losing the old posts.  If anyone can help me with this rather technical matter, please get in touch, as I would love to restore the old threads and messages.

Cookies

A cookie tracking system (CookieYes) has been installed to comply with UK GDPR requirements, and assist me in monitoring traffic.

Queen Street - A typical day in the 1960s
Queen Street - A typical day in the 1960s at one of the busiest streets in Wales!
Source: Matthew Witty

Start your journey by selecting an option from the list below.

SITE UPDATE HISTORY

January-March 2024 (Sitewide coding updates and new functions added, gallery images upgraded from 1280 to 1600px resolution, copyright logo prominence increased, updated image titles and gallery locations, improved WC AG AAA compliance)
October 2023 (New Cookie tracking system added for UK GDPR compliance)
July 2020 (Site secured with SHA-256 SSL certification; site-wide coding updates for v2.2; forum temporarily taken down)
23 September 2018 (Major sitewide coding updates for v2.1)
26 August 2018 (Minor coding updates; minor content revisions)
15 January 2015 (Site completely rebuilt; v2 launched)
30 December 2014 (General content updates throughout; development prep for v2)
07 March 2011 (v1.3 site redesign published) Archived Page
July 2007 (v1.2 site redesign published) Archived Page
Feb 2006 (v1.1 released) Archived Page
June 2005 (First build (v1) of website launched)
June 2004-2005 (Development stage)