The water birds of County Hall

Cormorants at dawn on the former Bute East Dock in Cardiff

I now find myself working as a temporary admin officer for Cardiff Council in the Highways department at County Hall. I have been there a week and love it. I am acting as maternity cover for someone, so I hope it will last for a while.

County Hall is in Cardiff Bay and not far from the main attractions of Mermaid Quay, so I will share my images of that area on another occasion. But what I have discovered in my first week is that many water birds nest on a long rectangular lake alongside the council HQ. It used to be the East Bute Dock when Cardiff was the main port for the export of South Wales coal.

County Hall is a very low building, so difficult to fit into a wide picture…

The plan of the building – square around a central courtyard – can be seen in this aerial view from Google Maps

You may recall that I was in a different part of Cardiff Bay in the summer, when I went back to school at Cardiff and Vale College to earn my CELTA qualification to teach English as a foreign language. I have been unable to find a relevant job since then, so have taken the temping alternative for now. Perhaps I will eventually be able to use my English teaching on a voluntary basis to help refugees fit in here.

Anyway, back to County Hall. It was wet for most of last week but Friday was crisp and clear so I took my camera to snap some images of the building and the birds on the old dock. These were taken at dawn, between 8am and 8.30, so the quality of the light may look a little strange.

A long view, looking north along the old Bute East Dock

At the north end is Atlantic Wharf

Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) on almost every pillar

I have written about cormorants elsewhere (here).

A closer look

Another, standing on one leg

There are also mute swans (Cygnus olor) – this is an adult…

…I assume the attractive markings on this one make it a youngster

A coot (Fulica atra)

Another coot…

…and this one is standing on a shallow shelf so you can see its splayed yellow feet, useful for walking on lily pads and other floating greenery

There’s always one – a black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) in its winter plumage

Blocks of flats at the south end of the old dock…

…with attractive reflections

The side of the County Hall building around dawn

Most of County Hall is three storeys high, but parts rise to four or five storeys. The distinctive shallow pitched roofs are of black Welsh slate. At the time of its construction we all thought it was rather like a Japanese pagoda in style.

It was created as the headquarters for South Glamorgan County Council, designed by county architect JRC Bethell and built between 1986 and 1987. It was officially opened in October of the following year by Lord Callaghan of Cardiff (former Prime Minister James Callaghan), who had been a Member of Parliament for Cardiff South and Penarth until 1987.

On local government reorganisation in 1996 South Glamorgan County Council disappeared and Cardiff (City) Council, which already existed as a second tier, took over the full running of services in the area – as well as County Hall. But it also kept on the Edwardian City Hall, its former HQ in the centre of Cardiff.

The siting of County Hall was the first attempt to regenerate the dockland area that had previously been home to heavy industry. Thirty years later Cardiff Bay is still developing and rows of smart apartments and shiny new office buildings are finally starting to join it up effectively to the city centre.

The front entrance of the building around dawn on a different day

The building is surrounded by plane trees, probably London planes, Platanus × acerifolia

They are quite young trees but I suppose they must go back to the building of County Hall in the late 1980s

Only a few leaves and seed balls are left

Silhouette

I took some more pictures of the front of the building later in the day…

The bilingual sign outside County Hall

The left end of the front of County Hall, now screened by growing trees

I think these may be cherries, but I will have to check

The main entrance in the middle of the day

To the right of the entrance is the bottom end of the old dock, and across it the Celsa Steel works, which I seem to remember was once Allied Steel and Wire

No doubt I will take better pictures of the birds in brighter daylight if I stay at County Hall long enough, but I thought I would share these for now.

Cormorants all looking in the same direction for once