City Hall, Cardiff

City Hall is a civic building in Cathays Park, Cardiff, Wales, serving as Cardiff's centre of local government since it opened in October 1906. Built of Portland stone, it is an important early example of the Edwardian Baroque style.HistoryThe complex replaced Cardiff's fourth town hall (which was located on the western side of St Mary's Street), built by architect Horace Jones c. 1850–53 (demolished 1913).The competition to design Cardiff's fifth town hall and adjacent law courts was won in 1897 by the firm of Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards. Construction was carried out by local builders E. Turner and Sons.Turned and Sons used the world's first all-electrically operated building site, including eight 5 ton cranes to lift the stone blocks. The total building cost was £129,708 (with the concurrently-built Law Courts next door costing £96,583).As Cardiff received its city charter in 1905 while construction was underway, the current building is known as City Hall.Exterior architectureClock towerThe distinctive clock tower is 59m in height has a 3.7m gilded dial on each of its four faces. The clock mechanism includes an hour bell and four quarter bells which are each inscribed with mottoes in English or Welsh.Fountains and poolIn front of the entrance portico is a rectangular pool with fountains. They were created in July 1969 to mark the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.