Penarth

Penarth
From the top clockwise, Windsor Road the main commercial area, Italian Gardens, Custom House, Penarth Marina, Penarth Pier
Penarth is located in Vale of Glamorgan
Penarth
Penarth
Location within the Vale of Glamorgan
Population22,083 (2011)[1]
OS grid referenceST185715
Community
Principal area
Preserved county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPENARTH
Postcode districtCF64
Dialling code029
PoliceSouth Wales
FireSouth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament
List of places
UK
Wales
Vale of Glamorgan
51°26′N 3°10′W / 51.43°N 3.17°W / 51.43; -3.17

Penarth (/pɛˈnɑːrθ/ pen-ARTH, Welsh: [pɛnˈarθ]) is a town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Cardiff city centre on the west shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay.

Penarth is a seaside resort in the Cardiff Urban Area,[3] and the second largest town in the Vale of Glamorgan, next only to the administrative centre of Barry.

During the Victorian era Penarth was a highly popular holiday destination, promoted nationally as "The Garden by the Sea"[4] and was packed by visitors from the Midlands and the West Country as well as day trippers from the South Wales valleys, mostly arriving by train. Today, the town, with its traditional seafront, continues to be a regular summer holiday destination (predominantly for older visitors), but their numbers are much lower than was common from Victorian times until the 1960s, when cheap overseas package holidays were introduced.

Although the number of holiday visitors has greatly declined, the town retains a substantial retired population, representing over 24% of residents, but Penarth is now predominantly a dormitory town for Cardiff commuters. The town's population was recorded as 20,396 in the United Kingdom Census 2001.[5] The built-up area had a population of 27,226, but this figure does not include nearby suburb Dinas Powys.[6]

The town retains extensive surviving Victorian and Edwardian architecture in many traditional parts of the town.

  1. ^ "Parish population 2011". Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Penarth Town Council Website". Penarth Town Council. Retrieved 2 July 2022.
  3. ^ "Wales' Highest Value Towns". Zoopla. 2012. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  4. ^ Owen, David (22 September 2002). "The Garden by the Sea". BBC Wales. Archived from the original on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  5. ^ Davies, John; Jenkins, Nigel; Menna, Baines; Lynch, Peredur I., eds. (2008). The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. p. 660. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6.
  6. ^ UK Census (2011). "Local Area Report – Penarth Built-up area sub division (W38000123)". Nomis. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 24 August 2020.