Newport ( ) is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and county borough in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, situated on the

River Usk The River Usk (; ) rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain (''y Mynydd Du''), Wales, in the westernmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Initially forming the boundary between Carmarthenshire and Powys, it flows north int ...

close to its confluence with the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary () is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England (from North Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire) and South Wales (from Cardiff, Newport to Monmouthshire). Its very h ...

, northeast of

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

. The population grew considerably between the 2011 and the 2021 census, rising from 145,700 to 159,587, the largest growth of any unitary authority in Wales. Newport is the third-largest principal authority with

city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose. Historically, ci ...

in Wales, and sixth most populous overall. Newport became a

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

in 1996 and forms part of the Cardiff-Newport metropolitan area, and the

Cardiff Capital Region The Cardiff Capital Region (CCR; ) is a City region (Wales), city region in Wales, centred on the capital city of Wales, Cardiff, in the southeast of the country. It is a partnership between the ten Local authorities of Wales, local authorities ...

. Newport has been a port since medieval times when the first Newport Castle was built by the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

. The town outgrew the earlier

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

town of

Caerleon Caerleon ( ; ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in Newport, Wales. Situated on the River Usk, it lies northeast of Newport city centre, and southeast of Cwmbran. Caerleon is of archaeological importance, being the site of a notable ...

, immediately upstream and now part of the city. Newport gained its first

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

in 1314. It grew significantly in the 19th century when its port became the focus of coal exports from the eastern South Wales Valleys. Newport was the largest coal exporter in Wales until the rise of Cardiff in the mid-1800s. Newport was the site of the last large-scale armed insurrection in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, the

Newport Rising The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rising in Wales, by Chartism, Chartists whose demands included democracy and the right to vote with a secret ballot. On Monday 4 November 1839, approximately 4,000 Chartist sympathisers, under ...

of 1839. In the 20th century, the docks declined in importance, but Newport remained an important centre for

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

and

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

. Latterly its economy has been bolstered as part of the

M4 corridor The M4 corridor is an area in the United Kingdom adjacent to the M4 motorway, which runs from London to South Wales. It is a major hi-tech hub. Important cities and towns linked by the M4 include (from east to west) London, Slough, Bracknell, M ...

high-technology cluster. It was granted city status in 2002. The Celtic Manor Resort in Newport hosted the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

in 2010 and was the venue for the 2014 NATO summit. The city contains extensive

rural areas In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically descri ...

surrounding the built-up core. Its villages are of considerable archaeological importance. Newport Cathedral is the seat of the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Bishop of Monmouth and is the cathedral of the Diocese of Monmouth.

Toponymy

The original Welsh name for the city was (pronounced ). This is a contraction of the name , which translates as 'new castle on the Usk'. The Welsh name is recorded in the when it was visited by

Henry II of England Henry II () was King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with the ...

sometime around 1172. "New castle" suggests a pre-existing fortification in the vicinity and is most likely either to reference the ancient fort on Stow Hill, or a fort that occupied the site of the present castle. The English name 'Newport' is a later application. The settlement was first recorded by the Normans as in 1126. This

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

name refers to the new borough (or town) established with the Norman castle.The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008. The origin of the name ''Newport'' and the reason for its wide adoption remains the subject of debate. ''Newport-on-Usk'' is found on some early maps, and the name was in popular usage well before the development of

Newport Docks Newport Docks is the collective name for a group of docks in the city of Newport, south-east Wales. By the eighteenth century there were a number of wharves on the west shore of the River Usk; iron and coal were the principal outward traffic. Th ...

. One theory suggests that ''Newport'' gained favour with medieval maritime traders on the Usk, as it differentiated the "New port" from the " Old Roman port" at

History

Early history

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

fishermen settled around the fertile estuary of the River Usk and later the

Celt The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

Silures The Silures ( , ) were a powerful and warlike tribe or tribal confederation of ancient Britain, occupying what is now south east Wales and perhaps some adjoining areas. They were bordered to the north by the Ordovices; to the east by the Do ...

built

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

s overlooking it. In AD 75, on the very edge of their empire, the

Roman legion The Roman legion (, ) was the largest military List of military legions, unit of the Roman army, composed of Roman citizenship, Roman citizens serving as legionary, legionaries. During the Roman Republic the manipular legion comprised 4,200 i ...

s built a Roman fort at

to defend the river crossing. According to legend, in the late 5th century Saint Gwynllyw (Woolos), the patron saint of Newport and King of Gwynllwg founded the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

which would become Newport Cathedral. The church was certainly in existence by the 9th century and today has become the seat of the Bishop of Monmouth. In 1049/50, a fleet of Orkney Vikings, under Welsh king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, sailed up the Usk and sacked St Gwynllyw's church. The church suffered a similar fate in 1063, when Harold Godwinson attacked south Wales. The

arrived from around 1088–1093 to build the first Newport Castle and river crossing downstream from Caerleon and the first Norman Lord of Newport was Robert Fitzhamon. The original Newport Castle was a small

motte-and-bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively eas ...

castle in the park opposite Newport Cathedral. It was buried in rubble excavated from the Hillfield railway tunnels that were dug under Stow Hill in the 1840s and no part of it is currently visible.

Norman invasion and early modern Newport

Around the settlement, the new town grew to become Newport, obtaining its first charter in 1314 and was granted a second one, by Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford in 1385 (the Newport coat of arms reflects those of the Staffords: theirs was a red chevron - pointing upwards- on a gold field, Newport's is a red chevron reversed - pointing downward - on the same background.) In the 14th century Augustinian friars came to Newport where they built an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. After its closure the hospital lived on in the place name " Spytty Fields" (a corruption of ''ysbyty'', the Welsh for hospital). "Austin Friars" also remains a street name in the city. During the Last War for Welsh Independence in 1402 Rhys Gethin, General for

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (28 May 135420 September 1415), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr (Glyn Dŵr, , anglicised as Owen Glendower) was a Welsh people, Welsh leader, soldier and military commander in the Wales in the late Middle Ages, late Middle ...

, forcibly took Newport Castle together with those at Cardiff, Llandaff, Abergavenny, Caerphilly, Caerleon and Usk. During the raid the town of Newport was badly burned and Saint Woolos church destroyed. A third charter, establishing the right of the town to run its own market and commerce came from Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham in 1426. By 1521, Newport was described as having "....a good haven coming into it, well occupied with small crays erchant shipswhere a very great ship may resort and have good harbour." Trade was thriving with the nearby ports of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

and

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. The town had a population of 41,276 at the 2021 census. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies along both sid ...

and industries included leather tanning, soap making and starch making. The town's craftsmen included bakers, butchers, brewers, carpenters and blacksmiths. A further charter was granted by James I in 1623. During the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

in 1648

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

's troops camped overnight on Christchurch Hill overlooking the town before their attack on the castle the next day. A cannonball dug up from a garden in nearby Summerhill Avenue, dating from this time, now rests in Newport Museum.

Industrial Revolution

As the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

transformed Britain in the 19th century, the South Wales Valleys became key suppliers of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

from the

South Wales Coalfield The South Wales Coalfield () extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, especially in the South Wales ...

, and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

. These were transported down local rivers and the new canals to ports such as Newport, and

grew rapidly as a result. Newport became one of the largest towns in Wales and the focus for the new industrial eastern valleys of

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

. By 1830 Newport was Wales' leading coal port, and until the 1850s it was larger than Cardiff. The

in 1839 was the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland Britain. John Frost and 3,000 other

Chartists Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of ...

marched on the Westgate Hotel at the centre of the town, where chartists were being held prisoner, with some of the chartists being armed. Shooting began between the chartists and the 45th Regiment of Foot, which had been called to the town by the Mayor of Newport, Thomas Phillips, to assist the police. At least 20 chartists were killed and were later buried in Saint Woolos churchyard. Thomas Philips and three of those in the hotel were wounded. John Frost was sentenced to death for treason, but this was later commuted to

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

to Australia. He returned to Britain (but not to Newport) later in his life. John Frost Square (1977), in the centre of the city, is named in his honour. Newport probably had a Welsh-speaking majority until the 1830s, but with a large influx of migrants from England and Ireland over the following decades, the town and the rest of Monmouthshire came to be seen as "un-Welsh", a view compounded by ambiguity about the status of Monmouthshire. In the 19th century, the St George Society of Newport (a group largely consisting of English settlers and businessmen) asserted that the town was part of England. It was at a meeting in Newport, attended by future Prime Minister

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...

, that the Cymru Fydd movement received its death-blow in 1896 when politician Robert Bird stated: "You will find, from Swansea to Newport, a cosmopolitan population who will not submit to the domination of Welsh ideas!". Lloyd George was to suffer a further blow in Newport, when the South Wales Liberal Federation, led by David Alfred Thomas, an industrialist and Liberal politician, and Robert Bird moved that Lloyd George "be not heard" in the 1895 General Election. The

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

capture of the recently created Newport constituency in a by-election in 1922 was one of the causes of the fall of his coalition government. The late 19th and early 20th century period was a boom time for Newport. The Alexandra Docks opened in 1875. The population was expanding rapidly and the town became a county borough in 1891. In 1892 the Alexandra South Dock was opened and was the largest masonry dock in the world. Although coal exports from Newport were by now modest compared to the Port of Cardiff (which included Cardiff,

Penarth Penarth ( , ) is a town and Community (Wales), community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately 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#Brit ...

and Barry), Newport was the place where the

Miners' Federation of Great Britain The Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB) was established after a meeting of local mining trade unions in Newport, Wales, Newport, Wales in 1888. The federation was formed to represent and co-ordinate the affairs of local and regional miners' ...

was founded in 1889, and international trade was sufficiently large for 8

consuls A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

and 14 vice-consuls to be based in the town. In 1898 Lysaght's

Orb Works John Lysaght and Co. was an iron and steel company established in Bristol, England, and with later operations in Wolverhampton, Newport, Wales, Newport, and Scunthorpe. The company was acquired by GKN in 1920. The founder John Lysaght (1832&ndas ...

opened and by 1901 employed 3,000 staff. Urban expansion took in Pillgwenlly and Lliswerry to the south; this eventually necessitated a new crossing of the River Usk, which was provided by the Newport Transporter Bridge completed in 1906, described as "Newport's greatest treasure". Further extensions to the South Dock were opened in 1907 and 1914. The Newport Docks Disaster occurred on 2 July 1909 when, during the construction of the new south lock connecting the South Dock to the

, supporting timbers in an excavation trench collapsed and buried 46 workers. Rescuers included a 12-year-old paperboy, Thomas 'Toya' Lewis, who was small enough to crawl into the collapsed trench. He worked for two hours trying to free one of the trapped men, who was finally released the next day. A public subscription raised several hundred pounds and Lewis was sent on an engineering scholarship. He was also awarded the Albert Medal for Lifesaving by King Edward VII. Memorials to the dead are in St Mark's Church, close to the centre of the city. A pub in the city centre was named "The Tom Toya Lewis" in his honour, but closed in 2021. The building in which the pub was housed was formerly the Newport

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

, the foundation stone for which was laid by Viscount Tredegar in 1909. From 1893 the town was served by the

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine driving paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, whereby the first uses were wh ...

s of P & A Campbell Ltd. (the "White Funnel Line"), which was based in Bristol. The company had originally been set up by the Scottish brothers Alex and Peter Campbell on the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

, but was re-located to the Severn Estuary. Departing steamers would face south on Davis Wharf, with the Art College to its left and the town bridge behind. The boats gave rise to the name of the short street which led to the quayside – Screwpacket Road. By 1955 steamers had stopped calling at Newport and P & A Campbell went into receivership in 1959. It was taken over by the firm which would become the Townsend Ferry group. Compared to many Welsh towns, Newport's economy had a broad base, with foundries, engineering works, a cattle market and shops that served much of Monmouthshire. However, the docks were in decline even before the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, and local unemployment peaked at 34.7% in 1930: high, but not as bad as the levels seen in the mining towns of the South Wales Valleys. Despite the economic conditions, the council re-housed over half the population in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1930 the Town Dock was filled in. The post-war years saw renewed prosperity, with Saint Woolos' Cathedral (now Newport Cathedral) attaining full cathedral status in 1949, the opening of the modern integrated Llanwern steelworks in 1962, and the construction of the

Severn Bridge The Severn Bridge () is a Controlled-access highway, motorway suspension bridge that spans the River Severn between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales. It is the original Severn crossing, Severn road crossi ...

and local sections of the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingdom, running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh ele ...

in the late 1960s, making Newport the best-connected place in Wales. Although employment at Llanwern steelworks declined in the 1980s, the town acquired a range of new public sector employers, and a Richard Rogers–designed Inmos microprocessor factory helped to establish Newport as a centre for technology companies. A flourishing local music scene in the early 1990s led to claims that the town was "a new

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

". The county borough of Newport was granted

in 2002 to mark Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

Golden Jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali language, ...

. In the same year, an unusually large merchant ship, referred to locally as the Newport Ship, was uncovered and rescued from the west bank of the River Usk during the construction of the Riverfront Arts Centre. The ship has been dated to between 1445 and 1469 and remains the only vessel of its type from this period yet discovered anywhere in the world.

Key dates in Newport's history

*: Norman wood

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

built on Stow Hill. *1314: First town

. *1327–1386: Newport Castle built. *1385: Second town charter granted by Hugh Stafford, 2nd Earl of Stafford. *1402: Town was taken by the forces of

, rebel Prince of Wales during the

Welsh Revolt Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

: Saint Woolos Church destroyed. *1426: Third town charter granted by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham. *1648: Town was taken by the forces of

during the

. *1672:

Tredegar House Tredegar House (Welsh language, Welsh: ''Tŷ Tredegar'') is a 17th-century Charles II of England, Charles II-era mansion in Coedkernew, on the southwestern edge of Newport, Wales. For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, late ...

completed. *1796: Opening of the

Monmouthshire Canal Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

. *1839: Chartist

, Westgate Hotel, Newport led by radical former mayor John Frost. *1842: Newport Town Dock opens – floating dock able to accommodate the largest ships in the world. *1858: Town Dock extended to the north. *1867: Lower Dock Street drill hall completed. *1871: W. H. Davies, renowned poet born at Portland Street, Pillgwenlly. *1875: Alexandra Dock opens. *1877: Athletic grounds at Rodney Parade opens. *1887: The

Boys' Brigade The Boys' Brigade (BB) is an international interdenominational Christianity, Christian youth organisation, conceived by the Scottish businessman William Alexander Smith (Boys' Brigade), Sir William Alexander Smith to combine drill and fun acti ...

movement in Wales founded by George Philip Reynolds at Havelock Street

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

. *1891: Newport gains County Borough status, governed independently of Monmouthshire. *1892: Alexandra South Dock opens, extended 1907 (phase2) and 1914 (phase3). *1880–1900: Godfrey Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar donates land for the benefit of the public, including Belle Vue Park, the

Royal Gwent Hospital The Royal Gwent Hospital () is a local general hospital in the city of Newport. It is managed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. Since 2020, the hospital no longer has a full Emergency Department, and redirects those with a serious il ...

and Newport Athletic Grounds. *1894: Belle Vue Park opens. *1898: Lysaght's

steelworks opens. *1901:

(originally the Newport and Monmouthshire Infirmary) opens on its current site *1906: Newport Transporter Bridge opens on 12 September. *1909: Newport Docks Disaster. *1915: First public

automatic telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

made in Britain opens in Newport. *1919: George Street/Ruperra Street Race Riots. *1921: Diocese of Monmouth created, following the disestablishment of the

Church in Wales The Church in Wales () is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The position is currently held b ...

: the new Bishop of Monmouth expects to be based at St Woolos Church for a short time until a planned new cathedral is built. *1930: Town Dock closes and filled in. *1937: King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...

visits Newport and cuts first sod of new Civic Centre building. *1949: Saint Woolos pro-Cathedral attains full

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

status, (now Newport Cathedral). *1962: Llanwern steelworks opens. Llanwern Steel works

*1963: Newport rugby club beats the touring New Zealand All Blacks. *2002: Newport granted city status; discovery of the Newport Ship. *2003: Newport Unlimited regeneration company set up. *2010: The

golf competition was hosted at the

Celtic Manor Resort Celtic Manor Resort is a golf, spa and leisure hotel and resort in the city of Newport, South East Wales. Owned by Sir Terry Matthews, the resort is located on the south-facing side of Christchurch Hill in eastern Newport, near Junction 24 o ...

. *2013: Hartridge High School reopens as Llanwern High School in a new £29m building. *2014: The 2014 NATO summit takes place at the Celtic Manor Resort. *2015: Friars Walk shopping centre opens. *2019: The International Convention Centre Wales opens at the Celtic Manor Resort. *2019: Railway electrification reaches Newport, as part of the 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western main line.

Governance and politics

:''See also :Politics of Newport, Wales'' Newport has long been the largest town in the historic county of Monmouthshire and a county borough between 1891 and 1974. The

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

removed ambiguity about the legal status of the area by including the administrative county of Monmouthshire and the county borough of Newport into all acts pertaining to Wales. In 1974, the borough was incorporated into the new local government county of Gwent until Newport became a

again in 1996. Gwent remains in use for ceremonial functions as a preserved county. Newport was historically

industrialised Industrialisation ( UK) or industrialization ( US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for th ...

with a large

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

population and strong support for the Labour Party. The district was formed by the

, from the county borough of Newport, the Caerleon Urban District and Magor and St Mellons Rural District (except the parishes of Henllys and St Mellons) from the

administrative county An administrative county was a first-level administrative division in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974, and in Ireland from 1899 until 1973 in Northern Ireland, 2002 in the Republic of Ireland. They are now abolished, although most Northern ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

. In 1996 the district under the

Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (c. 19) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which amended the Local Government Act 1972 to create the current local government structure in Wales of 22 unitary authority areas, referred to as ...

it became a

. The right to use the armorial bearings of the Newport Corporation which were lost when the corporation was abolished on 1 April 1974 were only officially transferred to the new authority on 14 March 1996, some 18 days before it too was abolished. The present city council was awarded the right to use the arms on 26 July 1996.

Council

Newport City Council Newport City Council () is the governing body for Newport, one of the principal areas of Wales. It consists of 51 councillors, who represent the city's 20 wards. The council is currently, and has historically been, held by the Labour Party. ...

consists of 53 elected councillors. The Labour Party won the 2022 Newport City Council election with 35 seats, ahead of the Conservative Party with 7 seats. The Labour Party lost control of Newport council in the 2008 local elections to a Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition but the Labour Party regained an overall majority of councillors in the 2012 election until the present day.

Senedd

In the

Senedd The Senedd ( ; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, Its role is to scrutinise the Welsh Government and legislate on devolve ...

(Welsh Parliament), Newport is divided between the Senedd constituencies of Newport East and Newport West and elects one

Member of the Senedd A member of the Senedd (MS; plural: ''MSs''; ; , plural: ) is a representative elected to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). There are sixty members, with forty members chosen to represent individual Senedd constituency, Senedd constituencies, a ...

(MS) in each constituency. In the

2021 Senedd election The 2021 Senedd election took place on Thursday 6 May 2021 to elect 60 members to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). It was the sixth Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved general election since the Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for ...

, the Labour Party retained both Newport East and Newport West. In

elections the Labour Party has held both the Newport East and Newport West constituencies since the constituencies were created in 1999.

UK Parliament

In UK General Elections the City of Newport is in two UK Parliament constituencies. Due to boundary changes the Newport West constituency was renamed Newport West and Islwyn for the

2024 United Kingdom general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a lan ...

. In 2024 the Labour Party won both the expanded Newport East constituency and the new Newport West and Islwyn constituency. Until 2024 The City of Newport was divided between the UK Parliament constituencies of Newport East and Newport West and elected one Member of Parliament (MP) in each constituency. The Labour Party held Newport East since constituency boundaries were redrawn in 1983 and held Newport West since 1987. The city formerly had only one constituency

Newport (Monmouthshire) (UK Parliament constituency) Newport was a borough constituency in Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire from 1918 to 1983. It returned one Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of t ...

until 1983 when the city was split into Newport East and Newport West due to population growth. 2024 Wales Newport Constituencies map

European Parliament

Prior to

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

in 2020, Newport was part of the Wales European Parliament Constituency. The Wales constituency elected four

Members of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...

(MEP) on a

Proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

basis. In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

the Wales constituency elected one MEP from the Labour Party, one from

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

and two from the

Brexit Party Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Nigel Farage has been Leader of Reform UK and Richard Tice deputy leader since 2024. It has five members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons and one membe ...

Elected representatives

Coat of arms

The official

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct an accurate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The visual d ...

of the armorial bearings is: "(arms) Or, a chevron reversed gules, the shield ensigned by a cherub proper. Supporters: on the dexter side a winged sea lion Or, and on the sinister side a sea dragon gules, the nether parts of both proper, finned gold."

Freedom of the City

The title of Freedom of Newport is a ceremonial honour, given by the Newport council to those who have served in some exceptional capacity, or upon any whom Newport wishes to bestow an honour. There have been 17 individuals or organisations that have received the honour since 1909, including: * Godfrey Charles Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar, Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire *

Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (; 17 November 1887 – 24 March 1976), nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the I ...

(1945) *Corps of the South Wales Borderers (24th Foot) * Royal Regiment of Wales (24th/41st Foot) * 104th Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers) *

Royal Welch Fusiliers The Royal Welch Fusiliers () was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, and part of the Prince of Wales's Division, that was founded in 1689, shortly after the Glorious Revolution. In 1702, it was designated a fusilier regiment and becam ...

(2001) * British Merchant Navy Association * HMS Severn (2006) *

Newport County A.F.C. Newport County AFC () is a professional association football club in the city of Newport, Wales, Newport, South Wales. The team compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. The club's usual Kit (association football), ho ...

(2013) * Newport R.F.C. (2013) *

Royal British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants. Membership Service in th ...

(2021)

Geography

Newport is located west of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and east of

. It is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of

and the preserved county of Gwent. The City of Newport, which includes rural areas as well as the built up area, is the sixth most populous

in Wales. The city is largely low-lying, but with a few hilly areas.

Wentwood Wentwood (), in Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire, South Wales, is a forested area of hills, rising to above sea level. It is located to the northeast of, and partly within the boundaries of, the city of Newport, Wales, Newport. Geology ...

is above sea level. Areas in the south and east of the city tend to be flat and fertile with some housing estates and industrial areas reclaimed from marshland. Areas near the banks of the River Usk, such as

, are also low-lying. The eastern outskirts of the city are characterised by the gently rolling hills of the Vale of Usk and

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

has panoramic views of the Vale of Usk and the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel (, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales (from Pembrokeshire to the Vale of Glamorgan) and South West England (from Devon to North Somerset). It extends ...

. Ridgeway at Allt-yr-yn also has good views of the surrounding areas and Bristol Channel. Brynglas has views over the city centre and

Twmbarlwm Twmbarlwm, also known as Twm Barlwm, Twyn Barlwm or locally known as "the Twmp" (translation: hump), the Nipple or the Pimple because of the mound that lies at its summit, is a hill situated to the northeast of Risca in South Wales. It is often ...

to the west. The

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

s of the city have grown outwards from the inner-city, mostly near the main roads, giving the suburban sprawl of the city an irregular shape. The urban area is continuing to expand rapidly with new housing estates continuing to be built. The city boundaries include a number of villages in the

Newport Built-up area The Newport Built-up area (previously known in official statistics as the Newport Urban Area) is an area of land defined by the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics (ONS) for population monitoring purposes. It is an urban conurbation a ...

Wards and districts

:''See also :Districts of Newport, Wales'' The city is divided into 21 wards. Most of these wards are coterminous with communities (parishes) of the same name. Each community can have an elected council. The following table lists city council wards, communities and associated geographical areas. ''*'' communities with a

community council A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain. In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. ...

Climate

Newport has a moderate

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

, with the weather rarely staying the same for more than a few days at a time. The city is one of the sunnier locations in Wales and its sheltered location tends to protect it from extreme weather. Like the whole of the British Isles, Newport benefits from the warming effect of the

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolin ...

. Newport has mild summers and cool winters.

Thunderstorms A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are som ...

may occur intermittently at any time of year, but are most common throughout late-spring and summer. Rain falls throughout the year, Atlantic storms give significant rainfall in the autumn, these gradually becoming rarer towards the end of winter. Autumn and summer have often been the wettest seasons in recent times.

Snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

falls in most winters and sometimes settles on the ground, usually melting within a few days. Newport records few days with

gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .

s compared to most of Wales, again due to its sheltered location.

Frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...

s are common from October to May. On 20 March 1930, the overnight temperature fell to the coldest temperature for the whole of the UK during that year, and the latest date in spring the UK's lowest temperature has been recorded.

Demography

Religion

In 1929 St Woolos Church became the Pro-Cathedral of the Diocese of Monmouth, becoming a full cathedral in 1949. When

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet, who served as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002 to 2012. Previously the Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of W ...

was appointed

Archbishop of Wales The post of Archbishop of Wales () was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and disestablished. The four historic Welsh dioceses had previously formed part of the Province of Canterbury, and so came ...

in 2000, the Cathedral became the Metropolitan Cathedral of Wales, as it had when previous Bishops of Monmouth were elected Archbishop. In 1850 Newport was recognised as a centre of

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in Wales when the Diocese of Newport and Menevia was created. Between 21 October 1966 and 6 October 1969, having retired as Bishop of Rochester, New York, Fulton J. Sheen, an American bishop who pioneered preaching on television and radio, was appointed the titular archbishop of Newport by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

. The Catholic St Patrick's Church was served by the

Rosminians The Rosminians, officially named the Institute of Charity (), abbreviated I.C., are a Catholic Church, Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men founded by Antonio Rosmini-Serbati, Antonio Rosmini and first organise ...

until the 2010s. The foundation of the Charles Street Baptist Church was mainly the project of three women who had been members of Bethesda Baptist Chapel in

Rogerstone Rogerstone (, meaning "Black house") is a large village and community (parish) in Newport, Wales. The area is governed by Newport City Council. The village falls within the ancient parish of Bassaleg and historic county of Monmouthshire. ...

, which was first built in 1742. In 1807 a Mrs Samuel and her friends rented a room in John Rowe's house on Stow Hill and asked the preachers John Hier, and his subordinate James Edmunds, both from Bethesda, to preach to them there. They later moved to a larger room in Charles Street. In 1816 a meeting at the Castleton Baptist Association agreed to build the first Welsh Baptist Chapel in Newport. Land was acquired in Charles Street, with the help of a bequest from Newport tailor John Williams. In May 1817 the opening services of the new church were held. By July 1879 the decline in Welsh-speaking in the town led to a change in the services from Welsh to English. In September 1993, the Charles Street congregation joined with Ebbw Bridge Baptist Church, Newport, and the Charles Street Chapel closed. In the 2011 census 56.8% of Newport residents considered themselves

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, 4.7%

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, 1.2% Other religions (including

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and Others), 29.7% were non-religious and 7.5% chose not to answer the non-compulsory religion question on the census. Newport has more than 50 churches, 7

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

s, and one

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

; the nearest Gurudwara is in Cardiff. The

church of St Julius and St Aaron, at St Julian's, was consecrated in 1926. The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Newport according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses.

Ethnicity

In the 2011 census, 89.9% described themselves as White, 5.5% Asian, 1.7% Black, 1.1% Mixed White/Black, 0.5% Mixed White/Asian and 1.4% as other ethnic groups. In the 2021 census, Whites had decreased to 85.6% of the population while all other groups increased bar Black Caribbeans.

Economy

Newport's

travel to work area A travel to work area (TTWA) is a statistical tool used by UK Government agencies and local authorities, especially by the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentres, to indicate an area where the population would generally commute to a ...

incorporates much of south Monmouthshire; the new 2001-based area also includes

Cwmbran Cwmbran ( ; , also in use as an alternative spelling in English) is a town in the county borough of Torfaen in South Wales. Lying within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire, Cwmbran was ...

. The city itself has three major centres for employment: the city centre, and business parks clustered around the

junctions 24 in the east and 28 in the west. Organisations based in the city include

Airbus Defence and Space Airbus Defence and Space is a division of Airbus SE. Formed in 2014 in the restructuring of European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), Airbus SE comprises the former Airbus Military, Astrium, and divisions. Contributing 21% of Airbus reven ...

; KLA; the headquarters of the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

; the headquarters of the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (formerly known as the Patent Office); the General Insurance Division of

Lloyds TSB Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Established in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds Bank e ...

; Acquis Insurance Management; Vantage Data Centers; a semiconductor plant for Vishay Intertechnology; the headquarters of insurance comparison site Gocompare; NFU Mutual; Walters Group civil engineers; SSCL; the headquarters of Wales and West Utilities;

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water is a not-for-profit company which supplies drinking water and wastewater services to most of Wales and parts of western England that border Wales. In total, it serves around 1.4 million households and businesses and over thr ...

; the shared-service centre for

HM Prison Service His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) is a part of HM Prison and Probation Service (formerly the National Offender Management Service), which is the part of His Majesty's Government charged with managing most of the prisons within England and ...

; the Passport Office for much of the south and west of the UK; and the Wales headquarters of the

Charity Commission The Charity Commission for England and Wales is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government that regulates registered charities in England and Wales and maintains the Central Register of Charities. Its counterparts in Scotland and ...

and

British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society () is the United Kingdom body of the worldwide neutral and impartial humanitarian network the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with 1 ...

. In 2014 Admiral Insurance opened a large newly constructed office opposite Newport railway station. In 1997, Newport secured what was then thought to be Europe's largest-ever inward investment when the

LG Group LG Corporation (or LG Group), formerly known as Lucky-Goldstar, is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi in 1947 and managed by successive generations of his family. It is the fourth-largest company in South Korea. ...

announced a £1.7 billion project creating 6,100 jobs, and supported by public sector grants. Facilities were built on the Celtic Lakes business and science park, but market conditions led to the semiconductor plant never opening, and the

CRT CRT or Crt most commonly refers to: * Cathode-ray tube, a display * Critical race theory, an academic framework of analysis CRT may also refer to: Law * Charitable remainder trust, United States * Civil Resolution Tribunal, Canada * Columbia ...

plant eventually closed in 2003. In 2005 Irish radiator manufacturer Quinn Group bought the former LG Phillips building, which became its European base. Industry in the east of Newport was formerly based at the Corus Llanwern steelworks, and although the rolling mill is still active, steel manufacture ceased in 2001. Permission has been granted to transform the former steelworks site into a £1bn mixed-use development comprising housing, office and industrial space, public open space and a range of community facilities. At the mouth of the River Usk, the Sims Metal Management plant hosts the world's largest

industrial shredder An industrial shredder is a machine used to break down materials for various applications such as recycling, volume reduction, and product destruction. Industrial shredders come in many different sizes and design variations based on what particle ...

for

scrap metal Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

with access by road, rail and sea.Sims UK opens multi-million pound metals recycling terminal
''LetsRecycle'', 17 November 2004. Retrieved 3 June 2010.Newport Hosts one of Europe's largest recycling facilities
''Materials Network Wales'', Summer 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2010.Powering the World’s largest Industrial Shredder
''weg.net'', 30 September 2009. Retrieved 3 June 2010.Man Made: World's biggest shredder
''National Geographic Channel''. Retrieved 3 June 2010. The plant, which is also the world's largest

car crusher A car crusher is an industrial device used to reduce the dimensions of derelict (Depreciation, depreciated) cars prior to transport for Vehicle recycling, recycling. Historically, because scrap cars were too big and bulky to transport to the s ...

which was featured in the TV series ' How do they do it'. Newport Cattle Market, in the Pillgwenlly area of the city, closed in 2009 and was demolished to make way for a new supermarket. On 17 February 2024 workers from Llanwern steelworks marched in the city centre to protest at the proposed loss of thousands of steel jobs at

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community (Wales), community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which d ...

Regeneration

The city has seen major regeneration projects being undertaken in recent years.

Infrastructure

The first stage of regeneration involved improving the city centre road network, turning Kingsway and Queensway into

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

s. The Southern Distributor Road to the south of the city opened in 2004, including the new City Bridge over the River Usk, improving access and opening up new areas for development. The Newport City footbridge opened in 2006 linking the east and west banks of the river for pedestrians and cyclists. Newport railway station was expanded in 2007 to four full size platforms capable of receiving 10 car

Intercity Express Programme The Intercity Express Programme (IEP) was an initiative of the Department for Transport (DfT) in the United Kingdom to procure new trains to replace the InterCity 125 and InterCity 225 fleets on the East Coast Main Line and Great Western Main Li ...

services to and from London Paddington. In 2010 a new station building was finished, carried out by engineering firm Atkins. During construction it was Wales' most environmentally friendly station work, using a hypermodern green

ETFE Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) is a fluorine-based plastic. It was designed to have high corrosion resistance and strength over a wide temperature range. ETFE is a polymer and its source-based name is poly (ethene-co-tetrafluoroethene). It i ...

structure similar to the materials used in the Eden Project and the Beijing Olympics' ' Water Cube'. In 2019 railway electrification and resigning work was completed, completing the 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western main line and reducing journey times to London to 1 hour 30 minutes. Newport bus station was redeveloped in 2013, expanded in 2015 with the Friars Walk development, and now offers 24 stands connecting to the rest of the city, as well as Cardiff and Bristol. Local railway stations are reopening, starting with Rogerstone station in 2008, Pye Corner station in 2014, and with three others planned in the city's

Unitary Development Plan In United Kingdom planning law, a unitary development plan (UDP) is a development plan prepared by a metropolitan district, London Borough or some unitary local authorities. Background UDPs contains policies equivalent to those in both a struc ...

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; ; ) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consisting of itself and its subsidiaries: Trans ...

intend to restart services between Newport and Ebbw Vale Parkway by 2021. The

was downgraded to a minor injuries unit in 2020 when the new Grange University Hospital ( Welsh: ''Ysbyty Athrofaol Y Faenor'') was opened at Llanfrechfa, near Cwmbrân. There had been proposals to use the former Corus steel Whiteheads site, close to the existing Royal Gwent site, for a replacement hospital but this was considered to have the same access and space restrictions as the current hospital. It was decided to redevelop the Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital site, a former mental health and disabilities residential centre near

, as a specialist and critical care unit. The M4 relief road skirting the southern edge of the urban area of Newport was proposed as a means of reducing the congestion on the existing M4 motorway (presently squeezed through the Brynglas Tunnels) and making Newport and the surrounding areas more accessible for motorised vehicles. The relief road scheme was cancelled in July 2009 but relaunched in 2014. A final decision not to proceed with the scheme was announced by the then

First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...

of Wales,

Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford (born 19 September 1954) is a Welsh politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Finance since September 2024, having previously held the position from 2016 to 2018. He previously served as First Minister of Wales and L ...

, on 4 June 2019.

Leisure

The Riverfront Arts Centre was the first structure to be built as part of Newport's regeneration by

in 2004. It stands on Kingsway on the west bank of the River Usk. On the east bank, Rodney Parade is home to the regional rugby union) team

Dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

and the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

team Newport County. Club rugby union side

Newport RFC Newport Rugby Football Club () is a Welsh rugby union club based in the city of Newport, Wales. They presently play in the Super Rygbi Cymru. Until 2021 Newport RFC were based at Rodney Parade situated on the east bank of the River Usk. Ever ...

play at

Newport Stadium Newport Stadium, also known as Spytty Park, is an association football, Rugby football, rugby and Sport of athletics, athletics stadium in Newport, Wales, Newport, South Wales. It is the home of Gwalia United F.C., Gwalia United FC, Newport City ...

Residential

Newport witnessed the fastest growth in property values in the UK during 2018, As part of the city's master plan, the city centre has been expanded to take in areas of the River Usk east bank, with the area of land between Newport Bridge and George Street Bridge part of an ongoing a £43 million high-density combined commercial and residential area, joined to the west bank by the new footbridge. The first phase has been labelled City Vizion. The Newport Student Village is adjacent to the university campus on the west bank, as well as the "Newhaus" development of 154 riverside apartments. At the southern end of the site, the "Alexandra Gate" development includes 300 homes and riverside apartments built adjacent to the City Bridge. In east Newport, land released from the Corus steelworks at Llanwern is being redeveloped as 4,000 houses, shops and other facilities.

Commercial

The Newport retail environment faced challenges following the

late-2000s recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

, with major redevelopment projects heavily delayed. Friars Walk shopping complex was first planned as a £210m development ahead of the

2010 Ryder Cup The 38th Ryder Cup was held 1–4 October 2010 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. It was the 17th time the Ryder Cup had been staged in United Kingdom, Britain, but the first time in Wales. It was played on the newly constructed ''Tw ...

, but faced numerous setbacks. The site opened to the public in November 2015BBC News
, ''Newport's £90m Friars Walk shopping complex opens'', 12 November 2015. helped by £90m of assistance from Newport Council to the developers, with the Debenhams flagship store. As well as 30 new shops, there are a dozen restaurants and an eight-screen Cineworld multiplex cinema. Plans for redevelopment of the smaller Cambrian Centre were approved in 2012. Building on hosting the Ryder Cup in 2010 and the NATO Summit in 2014, the 5,000 capacity Celtic Manor International Conference Centre (ICC Wales) opened in 2019 as a conference venue for businesses and events in Wales and across the South West of England. It has hosted the UK Space Conference,

BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

broadcasts, and numerous national political conferences including hosting the

Green Party of England and Wales The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; ), often known simply as the Green Party or the Greens, is a Green politics, green, Left-wing politics, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ram ...

and the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament (both through defect ...

. The 15-storey Chartist Tower was redeveloped by developers Garrison Barclay Estates as a 163-bedroom Mercure Hotel, offering views across the city and the Bristol Channel. The site will also include 25,000 sq ft of office space and 18,000 sq ft of retail space. The hotel development is seen as an important step towards meeting the additional demand for hotel space in Newport created by the International Convention Centre (ICC) Wales. The opening of the hotel was delayed by several months due to Wales' lockdown as a response to COVID-19 and opened in May 2022. Newport Market was redeveloped as a £12m mixed use site with a tech hub, apartments, market units, as well as a food court, a project led by Newport City Council and the proprietors of Tramshed Cardiff.

Transport

:''See also :Transport in Newport, Wales'' For those travelling west from England into Wales, Newport is the first major urban area one passes through. As a result, it is a convergence point for national road, bus, and rail routes.

Aviation

The nearest airport with scheduled domestic and international flights is

Cardiff Airport Cardiff Airport () is an airport in Rhoose, Vale of Glamorgan. It is the only airport offering commercial passenger services and cargo services in Wales. The airport is owned by the Welsh Government, operating it at arm's length as a commercia ...

, south-west of Newport. The airport is a 35-minute drive away from the city or a 55-minute train journey which involves changing at Cardiff Central for Vale of Glamorgan Line services to the nearby Rhoose Cardiff International Airport railway station. The airport is also accessible by transferring to 24-hour TrawsCymru T9 buses, which begin at Cardiff Central station. In 2003, a proposal for a new ''Severnside'' airport near Newport was rejected by the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

. The airport would have featured runways on a man-made island in the

Buses

Newport bus station is the largest bus interchange in the county, with 24 stands. It was built as part of the adjacent Friars Walk shopping centre and the station opened in December 2015. Bus services are primarily provided by the municipally funded

Newport Bus Newport Bus (the operating name of Newport Transport Limited) is the main provider of Bus transport in the United Kingdom, bus services in the city of Newport, Wales. A limited company whose shares are wholly owned by Newport City Council, it i ...

company, and neighbouring firm Cardiff Bus. Other operators include Phil Anslow Coaches, Stagecoach in South Wales, New Adventure Travel (N.A.T.), and until recently, First West of England. Inter-city

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

services run from a stop near the Riverfront arts centre, opposite the bus station and

Megabus (Europe) Megabus is an operator of intercity bus service in the United Kingdom, primarily from/to Glasgow or Edinburgh. It is owned by Scottish Citylink and was founded by Stagecoach Group (through Stagecoach Midlands) in August 2003. History S ...

services operate outside of Newport station.

Railway

Newport is the easternmost Welsh city on the United Kingdom rail network and has close proximity to major economic centres in Cardiff and Bristol. Newport railway station is the second-busiest station in Wales and, due to its interchange options, it serves as a major transfer station. The

Great Western Main Line The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs between London Paddington and . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. The GWML is presently a part of t ...

connects the city with termini at Bristol Temple Meads, London Paddington and

Pembroke Dock Pembroke Dock () is a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, northwest of Pembroke on the banks of the River Cleddau. Originally Paterchurch, a small fishing village, Pembroke Dock town expanded rapidly following the constr ...

; the Welsh Marches line connects with

Holyhead Holyhead (; , "Cybi's fort") is a historic port town, and is the list of Anglesey towns by population, largest town and a Community (Wales), community in the county of Isle of Anglesey, Wales. Holyhead is on Holy Island, Anglesey, Holy Island ...

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the main railway station of the city of Manchester, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. Opened originally as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchest ...

and

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

; and the Gloucester line connects the borders region including

Cheltenham Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

. The Wessex Main Line also provides an hourly service from the city to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

. The station has four platforms and is a mandatory stop on all

express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...

services to and from London Paddington. The city is well linked with the nearby Welsh capital

, with approximately six rail and five bus services between the cities every hour. Services to/from Bristol stop at Newport on average 2–3 times per hour, while there are nearly 4 services to/from London each hour.

Modernisation

The current Newport station was built in 2010, in a hypermodern green

structure, after a £22 million refurbishment programme; it introduced the futuristic new passenger terminal and bridge, whilst restoring the 19th-century features of the site. The new complex, west of the old station entrance, includes two terminals, four full-size platforms, new terminal buildings and a public footbridge, a new passenger footbridge, a new taxi area, short-stay car park and a 250-space passenger car park. The 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western main line programme has seen the installation of new facilities on platforms 2 and 3, including redesigned toilets, waiting rooms and covered areas. Overhead line equipment has been installed through the city, as part of electrification of the London to Cardiff line, which allows the operation of Hitachi

trains. The new services are all-electric, with more seats and improvements to journey times between Newport and London of around 1 hour 30 minutes, including non-stop services after Wales between Bristol Parkway and London Paddington. Rogerstone railway station, on the Ebbw Valley (Western Valleys) line, reopened in 2008 and Pye Corner, close to the site of the former Bassaleg railway station, opened around 2015.

services run between

Ebbw Vale Ebbw Vale (; ) is a town at the head of the valley formed by the Ebbw Fawr tributary of the Ebbw River in Wales. It is the largest town and the administrative centre of Blaenau Gwent county borough. The Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr conurbation has a ...

and Cardiff Central, and between

and Newport, via Rogerstone and Pye Corner. Direct services between Ebbw Vale and Newport were reintroduced in early 2024 following work on local signalling. There are active proposals from Grand Central to operate services from Llanelli, via Cardiff and Newport, to London Paddington, only stopping at Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol Parkway instead of the current service which also calls at Didcot Parkway, Swindon and Reading.

Services

The services calling at Newport are: *

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

** London Paddington –

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

– Bristol Parkway – ''Newport'' – Cardiff Central (–

Bridgend Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...

–

Neath Neath (; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community situated in the Neath Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot County Borough, Wales. The town had a population of 50,658 in 2011. The community of the parish of Neath had a population of 19,2 ...

–

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

) **Cardiff Central – ''Newport'' – Bristol Temple Meads – Bath Spa –

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

–

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

–

Portsmouth Harbour Portsmouth Harbour is a / biological Site of Special Scientific Interest between Portsmouth and Gosport in Hampshire. It is a Ramsar site and a Special Protection Area. It is a large natural harbour in Hampshire, England. Geographically it ...

**Cardiff Central – ''Newport'' – Bristol Temple Meads –

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary district, in the county of Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. Its population ...

–

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...

–

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

–

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...

–

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

–

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

–

– ''Newport'' – Cardiff Central (– Bridgend – Port Talbot – Neath – Swansea –

Carmarthen Carmarthen (, ; , 'Merlin's fort' or possibly 'Sea-town fort') is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community (Wales), community in Wales, lying on the River Towy north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. At the 2021 United Kingdom cen ...

–

Haverfordwest Haverfordwest ( , ; ) is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire with a population of 14,596 in 2011. It is also a Community (Wales), community consisting of 12,042 people, making it the secon ...

) **Cardiff Central – ''Newport'' – Cwmbran – Hereford – Shrewsbury – Wrexham General –

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

– Rhyl – Bangor –

** Maesteg –

– Cardiff Central – ''Newport'' –

Chepstow Chepstow () is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the western end of the ...

–

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

–

Cheltenham Spa Cheltenham () is a historic spa town and borough adjacent to the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort following the discovery of mineral springs in 1716, and claims to be the mo ...

CrossCountry CrossCountry (legal name XC Trains Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains, operating the current CrossCountry franchise. The CrossCountry franchise was restructured by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2006, ...

**Cardiff Central – ''Newport'' – Gloucester – Cheltenham Spa – Birmingham New Street –

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

Roads

M4 Motorway

The

junctions in and near the city area: *23A lies just outside the city boundaries and provides local access via the A4810 and B4245. *24: Coldra A449/A48/B4237 *25: Caerleon Road B4596 *25A: Grove Park A4042 *26: Malpas Road A4051 *27:

High Cross A high cross or standing cross (, , ) is a free-standing Christian cross made of stone and often richly decorated. There was a unique Early Medieval tradition in Ireland and Britain of raising large sculpted stone crosses, usually outdoors. Th ...

, B4591 *28:

Tredegar Park Tredegar Park () is a country park situated in the Coedkernew area of Newport, Wales. It lies close to junction 28 of the M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingd ...

A48/A4072 (A467/A468) *29: St Mellons A48(M) – no access from local roads The Brynglas Tunnels are a cause of traffic delays as the M4 narrows to two lanes in both directions between junctions 25 and 26.

Southern Distributor Road

The Southern Distributor Road (SDR) is part of the

A48 road The A48 is a trunk road in Great Britain running from the A40 at Highnam, west of Gloucester, England, to the A40 at Carmarthen, Wales. Before the Severn Bridge opened on 8 September 1966, it was a major route between England and South Wale ...

and is a peripheral distributor road, which runs from Junction 24 of the M4 motorway in the east of Newport to Junction 28 in the west. Combined with the M4 in the north, the SDR forms the southern part of a

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...

for the city.

Other routes

The major east–west A roads are: *The

A48 A48 may refer to: * A48 motorway (France), a road connecting the A43 and Grenoble * A48 road (Great Britain), a road connecting Gloucester, England and Carmarthen, Wales * Autovía A-48, a motorway under construction connecting Cadiz and Algecira ...

westbound (Southern Distributor Road - Cardiff Road to St Mellons) is as an alternative route from Newport to Cardiff. *The A48 eastbound (Southern Distributor Road - Chepstow Road through Langstone) is as an alternative route from Newport to

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it is one of four regions that altogether make up Southern England. South West England con ...

(via the

), the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley () is a valley in Wales and England. The River Wye () is the Rivers of Great Britain#Longest rivers in the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The upper part of the valley is in the Cambrian Mountains an ...

and

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

. *The A467 (Forge Road) from M4 junction 28 connects Newport to

Risca Risca () is a town in the Caerphilly County Borough and within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire in south-east Wales. It is split into two Community (Wales), communities; Risca East an ...

and

and, via the A468, to

Machen Machen (from Welsh ' "place (of)" + ', a personal name) is a large village three miles east of Caerphilly, south Wales. It is situated in the Caerphilly borough within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It neighbours Bedwas and Treth ...

and

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; , ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley and separated from the Cardiff suburbs of Lisvane and Rhiwbina by Caerphilly Mountain. It is north of Cardiff an ...

. *The A4810 (Queen's Way) connects the SDR at Lee Way to the M4 at junction 23A through the Llanwern Steelworks. Newport - Forge Road A467 - geograph-3929533-by-Lewis-Clarke

Newport - Forge Road A467 - geograph-3929533-by-Lewis-Clarke

The principal north-south A roads are: *The A449 connects Newport to Usk and A40 to

and the English Midlands via M4 junction 24. *The A4042 connects Newport to

Pontypool Pontypool ( ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire in South Wales. , it has a population of 29,062. Locat ...

and

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; , , archaically , ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately from the England–Wales border, border with England and is loca ...

via M4 junction 25A. *The A4051 (Malpas Road) connects Newport to Cwmbran via M4 junction 26. The B roads are: *The B4237 (former A48) connects M4 junction 24 to junction 28 (Chepstow Road, Wharf Road, crossing George Street Bridge onto George Street and then Cardiff Road). *The B4596 (Caerleon Road, former A4042) links central Newport to

via M4 Junction 25. *The B4591 (Risca Road/Glasllwch Crescent/High Cross Road, former A467) is an alternative route from Newport to Risca via M4 Junction 27 (

) and

. *The B4245 (Magor Road) at Langstone connects Newport to

Underwood Underwood may refer to: People *Underwood (surname), people with the surname Places Australia *Underwood, Queensland, a suburb of Logan City, Australia *Underwood, Tasmania, a locality United Kingdom *Underwood, Devon, a List of United Kingdom ...

, Magor and Caldicot. *The B4239 (Lighthouse Road) at Duffryn connects Newport to

Rumney, Cardiff Rumney () is a district and Community (Wales), community in the east of the city of Cardiff, Wales. It lies east of the Rhymney River, and was historically part of Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire. On 1 April 1938 the Cardiff Extension A ...

City centre

The Old Green Interchange is an elevated roundabout over the A4042 (Heidenheim Drive) at the western end of Newport Bridge. Newport's pedestrianised

High Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

runs southwest from the interchange through Westgate Square to the pedestrianised Commercial Street. Queensway passes Newport railway station and links the Old Green Interchange to Newport Civic Centre via Clytha Park Road. Kingsway/Usk Way is a

on the west bank of the River Usk linking the Old Green Interchange to the Southern Distributor Road at the western end of City Bridge and to Newport Transporter Bridge. Corporation Road follows the east bank of the River Usk, but with limited views of the river. It links Newport Bridge to George Street Bridge, Newport City Bridge and, via Stephenson Road, Newport Transporter Bridge.

Notable buildings and structures

''See the following categories:'' * Buildings and structures in Newport, Wales *

Landmarks in Newport, Wales A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern-day use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures ...

* Visitor attractions in Newport, Wales Many of the landmarks of Newport are in Newport city centre or within a short walking distance of the centre; these include: * Newport Cathedral () * Newport Castle () * Newport Bridge (1800) * Ye Olde Murenger House (1819) * St Paul's Church (1835) *Victoria Place (1840s) * Newport railway station (1850, rebuilt 1930s and 2010) * Newport Market (1854) * St Mark's Church (1874) * Rodney Parade (1875) * Westgate Hotel (1881) * Museum Art Gallery and Central Library (1968) * Belle Vue Park (1891) *

(1901, no original buildings remaining)) * Shire Hall (1902) * Transporter Bridge (1906) * Newport Technical Institute (former Art College) (1910) * Civic Centre (1939) * George Street Bridge (1964) * Dolman Theatre (1967) * Newport Crown Court (1991) * Newport City Bridge (2004) * Riverfront Arts Centre (2004) * Newport City footbridge (2006) * University of South Wales, Newport Campus (2011) The city has a number of churches of architectural merit. Other landmarks include: * West Usk Lighthouse – operating as a hotel. * Beechwood House – at Beechwood Park. * Brynglas House – operating as an adult-education centre. * Church of St Mary, Nash – the 12th-century parish church of Nash near Newport described by local historian Fred Hando as "the Cathedral of the Moors". * Lysaght Institute – former

working men's club Working men's clubs are British private social clubs first created in the 19th century in industrial areas, particularly the North of England, Midlands, Scotland, Northern Ireland and South Wales Valleys, to provide recreation and education ...

for steelworkers when the

steel plant moved from

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

. Built 1928, refurbished 2012. *

Isca Augusta Isca, variously specified as Isca Augusta or Isca Silurum, was the site of a Roman legionary fortress and settlement or ''vicus'', the remains of which lie beneath parts of the present-day suburban town of Caerleon in the north of the city of ...

– extensive remains of a Roman fortress in the village of Caerleon including a baths, amphitheatre, and barracks. The site of the Cadw Roman Legion museum. * Hanbury Arms, a pub in Caerleon which was noted as the place where

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

wrote Idylls of the King. *Newport Cenotaph –

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

memorial in Clarence Place. *Main Post Office – a retained

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

of the former main

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

building in

adjacent to the old

Corn Exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

. A

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

states: "Site of Newport's first Head Post Office. Built in 1844 and rebuilt in 1907, the Edwardian façade being preserved in the total reconstruction of the island site in 2001. Once housed the town's first telephone exchange, known as The Savoy. Listed Grade II in 1985." *The Kings Hotel – former hotel in High Street dated , now redeveloped as apartments *Newport Arcade – Victorian arcade linking High Street to Cambrian Road. *Market Arcade – Victorian arcade linking High Street to Market Street. *Waterloo Hotel – Grade II-listed building in Alexandra Road, Pillgwenlly, currently operating as a bistro. *Masonic Hall – Grade II-listed building at 109 Lower Dock Street. *Burton Almshouses – almhouses, located on Friars Road, and Victoria Almshouses, Stow Hill, built 1900. *The Old Rising Sun – former public house on Shaftesbury Street,

Shaftesbury Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Salisbury and north-northeast of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hi ...

*An unusual cylindrical former electricity transformer (1891), situated in Park Square. Newport Town Bridge

Newport has nine public bridges spanning the River Usk, connecting the east and west of the city. From north to south they are: Caerleon Bridge, St. Julian's railway bridge, M4 motorway Usk bridge, Usk Railway Bridge, Newport Bridge, Newport City footbridge, George Street Bridge, City Bridge and Transporter Bridge. In addition, the Twenty Ten Bridge at the

is a footbridge crossing the River Usk north of Caerleon Bridge, not open to the public. The city has had a long history of constructed crossings of the River Usk, wooden bridges going back to Norman times, and stone ones beginning in 1800: *1800: First stone structure, Newport Bridge, constructed *1806: Caerleon Bridge built *1850: South Wales Railway Usk Bridge built *1866: Newport Road Bridge widened *1866: St. Julian's railway bridge built *1888: second Usk Railway Bridge built beside first *1906: Transporter Bridge built *1911: Great Western Railway Usk bridge widened *1927: Current Newport Bridge built *1964: George Street Bridge built *1967: M4 motorway Usk bridge built *1989: M4 motorway Usk bridge, and additional crossings, built *2004: City Bridge built *2006: Newport City footbridge built *2010: Twenty Ten Bridge built

Shopping

:''See also :Shopping in Newport, Wales''

City centre

The main shopping streets of Newport city centre are pedestrianised with

and Commercial Street forming the north /south axis plus adjoining roads including Newport Arcade, Market Arcade, Skinner Street, Bridge Street, Upper Dock Street, Market Street, Griffin Street, Corn Street, Cambrian Road, Hill Street and Llanarth Street. The five roads of Commercial Street, Stow Hill, Bridge Street, High Street and Skinner Street converge at Westgate Square (named after the Westgate Hotel) and this is generally regarded as the central point the city. Kingsway Shopping Centre is an indoor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

. The adjoining £90 million Friars Walk shopping centre opened in November 2015 is regarded as having benefited the city centre; this has 30 shops, about 12 restaurants and an 8-screen cinema. Newport Market is a Victorian indoor market on two floors with outlets for produce and general products. , width=250, height=300 , align=center File:Newport Arcade - geograph.org.uk - 515556.jpg, Newport Arcade,

File:Newport city centre 01.jpg, The junction of High Street, Commercial Street, Skinner Street, Bridge Street and Stow Hill in the city centre File:High Street and Olde Murenger Pub, Newport, Wales.jpg, High Street File:Newport, Westgate Hotel (geograph 5040411).jpg, The Westgate Hotel in Commercial Street File:Newport - Commercial Street.jpg, Commercial Street File:Kingsway shopping centre.jpg, Kingsway Shopping Centre

Retail parks

Outside of the city centre large retail parks are established off the Southern Distributor Road: * Newport Retail Park is to the east at Lliswerry –

Junction 24 (Coldra), then A48 (Ringland Way/Spytty Road). *Three retail parks (Harlech, Maesglas and 28 East) around

Maesglas Maesglas or Maes-glas is a neighbourhood in the south west of the city of Newport, Wales, Newport, South Wales. In the 16th century it was recorded as Greenfield but the Welsh language name ''Maesglas'' has remained the more widely used, among E ...

to the west of the city – M4 motorway Junction 28 (Tredegar Park), then A48.

Notable people

Education

The

University of South Wales The University of South Wales (USW) () is a public university in Wales, with campuses in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd. It was formed on 11 April 2013 from the merger of the University of Glamorgan and the University of Wales, Newport. The ...

campus is on the west bank of the river Usk in Newport city centre. The university can trace its roots to the founding of the Newport Mechanics Institute in 1841. Newport School of Art, Media and Design was one of the first Art Schools to be awarded degree status in 1973 and enjoyed a high reputation in painting, Fine Art, and sculpture throughout the 1960s and 1970s. It is still highly regarded however, especially in

documentary photography Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically undertaken as professional ph ...

. The Fine Art course closed in 2013, its final degree show entitled 'depARTure'. Newport also has the further-education Coleg Gwent City of Newport Campus, informally known as Nash College, in Lliswerry. Brynglas House is currently an Adult Education Centre. Newport has eight English-medium state secondary

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

s: Bassaleg School, Newport High School, St Joseph's Roman Catholic High School, Caerleon Comprehensive School, John Frost School, Lliswerry High School, Llanwern High School and Saint Julian's School. The Welsh-medium secondary school is ''Ysgol Gyfun Gwent Is Coed'' in Duffryn. Newport has four Welsh-medium

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s; ''Ysgol Gymraeg Casnewydd'' in Ringland, ''Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Teyrnon'' in Brynglas and ''Ysgol Gymraeg Ifor Hael'' in Bettws. ''Ysgol Gymraeg Nant Gwenlli'' is temporarily located in

and is planned to move to the refurbished former Pillgwenlly Primary school site in 2025. Pillgwenlly Primary moved to a new build facility in 2024 on the former Corus steel Whiteheads site. All the above schools are state funded schools governed by Newport Local Education Authority. Rougemont School in Malpas is an independent fee-paying school, taking pupils from age 3 to 18. A

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

academy is based at Llanwern High School. It was established in 1998 as a partnership of Newport County Football Club and Newport City Council, when the school was named Hartridge High School. The academy has a development programme of around 50 students undertaking sporting qualifications. The students compete in the EFL Youth Alliance as Newport County's youth team.

Culture and arts

:''See also :Culture in Newport, Wales'' Newport Transporter Bridge is one of the few remaining working bridges of its type in the world and featured in the film Tiger Bay. Visitors can travel on the suspended cradle most days and can walk atop the steel framework on bank holidays. The only other British example is Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge. Open days are occasionally held to view the renovation of the historically important Newport Ship. The Riverfront Arts Centre is a modern purpose-built theatre and arts venue. The Dolman Theatre was refurbished in 2005. The Phyllis Maud Performance Space theatre seats between 25 and 30 in a converted Victorian public toilet. The city has many works of civic art including: *The steel ''Wave'' by Peter Fink (1991), on the west bank of the

. *Twelve painted murals by Hans Feibusch (1961–64) at the Newport Civic Centre. *Tiled murals by Kenneth Budd (1975) at the Old Green Interchange. *''Union, Prudence, Energy'' statues commemorating the Chartist

outside the Westgate Hotel. Created by Christopher Kelly (1991). *''Stand and Stare'' statue by Paul Bothwell Kincaid, in Commercial Street, commemorating the work of poet W. H. Davies, who was born in Newport and lived his early life there. Davies is best known for his poem

Leisure Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...

; "What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare". *Statue of Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar, in Bridge Street, created by John Evan Thomas (1850). * Merchant Navy Memorial statue (1991) by Sebastien Boyesen at Gilligan's Island. *''This Little Piggy'' statue by Sebastien Boyesen (1994) outside Newport Market. *''The Vision of St.Gwynllyw/The Bell Carrier'' statue by Sebastien Boyesen (1996) in Llanarth Street. *''Archform'' sculpture by Harvey Hood at Newport Railway Station. *''In the Nick of Time'', known locally as the Newport Clock, by sculptor Andy Plant at Glan Llyn, Llanwern. Formerly stood in John Frost Square. *

British Women's Temperance Association The White Ribbon Association (WRA), previously known as the British Women's Temperance Association (BWTA), is an organization that seeks to educate the public about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, as well as gambling. Founding of British Wom ...

Drinking Fountain (1913) – terracotta fountain, at Newport Cathedral, made by

Royal Doulton Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of Engl ...

. *Stone memorial to the Allied invasion of Europe on 6 June 1944 in High Street. *''Chartist Frieze'' commemorating the Chartist

in Friars Walk by Sebastien Boyesen (2015). Newport has three major museums: Newport Museum in the city centre and at

the National Roman Legion Museum and Roman Baths Museum. Newport Central Library is located within Newport Museum. In July each year an Arts festival is held in Caerleon and Roman Military re-enactment in the amphitheatre, the largest restored amphitheatre in Britain. The remains of the Roman baths, barracks and fortress walls of

can be seen at Caerleon. Caerleon also has literary associations to the legend of

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

through

Geoffrey of Monmouth Geoffrey of Monmouth (; ; ) was a Catholic cleric from Monmouth, Wales, and one of the major figures in the development of British historiography and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle '' The History of ...

and later

Arthur Machen Arthur Machen ( or ; 3 March 1863 – 15 December 1947) was the pen-name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones, a Welsh people, Welsh author and mysticism, mystic of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for his influential supernatural ...

(who was born in Caerleon) and

Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of ...

wrote his Idylls of the King in Caerleon. The Newport Festival runs throughout the summer months with a large number of events being staged in the city centre and elsewhere in the city. Set in a park of ,

is an example of a 17th-century Charles II mansion. The earliest surviving part of the building dates back to the late 15th century. For over five hundred years, it was home to the Morgans – later Lords Tredegar – until they left in 1951. The house was then bought by the Catholic Church and used as a girls' school until it was bought by the council in 1974, which led to it being described as the "grandest council house in Britain". Newport hosted the

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales ( Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competito ...

in 1897, 1988 and 2004. A

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

Chartist Mural was created in 1978 near John Frost Square to commemorate the Chartist rising of 1839. It was demolished amid protests in October 2013 to make way for city centre redevelopment.Natalie Crockett, "Chartist mural to be re-created in library", ''South Wales Argus'', 22 March 2012
. Retrieved 7 October 2013 A trust was set up to commission a new memorial with £50,000 of funding provided by Newport City Council In 2014 the Newport Chartist Commission, with members Dame Rosemary Butler, Pat Drewett and

, sought to recruit a project manager. A smaller replica of the mural, in four panels, was unveiled on 4 November 2019, exactly 180 years since the Chartist uprising. It was created by Oliver Budd, son of the original mural's creator, Kenneth Budd. The panels are located on Cefn Road,

, and include an information board telling the history of Chartism. As part of the city's "Big Splash" festival, on 30 August 2010, 45-year-old French circus star Olivier Roustan from

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, performed the highest ever wirewalk in Europe, along the top cable of the Newport City footbridge. Newport hosted an outdoor art exhibition called " SuperDragons" in 2010 which displayed 60 large dragons decorated by local community groups. In November 2013 the Newport Arts, Culture and Heritage Association (NACHA), which promotes "the past, present and future of the arts, culture and heritage of the people of Newport, South Wales" was launched on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. In December 2014 chairman of the Friends of Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Richard Frame, expressed alarm at Newport City Council proposals to close the museum in 2015.

Music and nightlife

:''See also

Music of Newport The Newport music scene, in and around Wales' Newport, Wales, third city, has been well documented and acclaimed for cultivating bands, singers, and famous music venues. Newport has been traditionally a rock music, rock city since the 1970s, b ...

The city centre has many pubs, bars and nightclubs, mostly in the vicinity of High Street. The most famous of these was TJ's, an alternative music club where it is claimed that

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establis ...

Nirvana Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...

proposed to

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, Love has had a career spanning four decades. She rose to promi ...

, which closed in 2010. TJ's was voted one of the top 50 'Big Nights Out' in the world by FHM in December 1997. The Riverfront Arts Centre is a popular concert venue. Other live music venues in the city centre include

NEON Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...

, Six Feet Under, Le Pub, Riverside Tavern, Warehouse 54, McCann's, Slippin Jimmy's, El Sieco's, and The Potters. The Newport Centre, which hosted many music concerts from 1984 to the 2010s, was closed during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and was subsequently demolished in 2023. The planned replacement leisure centre will not have a concert and performance space. Outdoor music events are held in the summer months at Beechwood Park, Belle Vue Park, Rodney Parade, as well as the Pillgwenlly and Maindee carnivals. Newport is the subject of a 2010 song "

Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind) "Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind)" is a parody version of the 2009 " Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American Rapping, rapper, businessman, and record executi ...

", a parody of the

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer and songwriter. A classically trained pianist, Keys began composing songs at the age of 12 and was signed by Columbia Records at 15. After d ...

song " Empire State of Mind". The video went viral, was featured on BBC News, and by August 2010, nearly 2.5 million people had watched it on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. YouTube removed the video due to a copyright claim by music publishers. Newport-based rap group

Goldie Lookin Chain Goldie Lookin Chain are a Welsh comedy hip hop group from Newport, Wales, Newport, Wales. The group produces humorous, and often explicit songs that satirise hip hop music, hip hop, today's consumer society, the "chav" culture and life in Newpo ...

released a 'parody of a parody' video in response, alleging that their rivals lacked local knowledge. City of Newport Male Choir is one of the leading male voice choirs in the region

Parks and playing fields

:''See also :Parks in Newport, Wales'' The main municipal

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

s in Newport are

, Belle Vue Park and Beechwood Park. The main municipal

playing field Play is a range of Motivation#Intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsically motivated activities done for recreation. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other high ...

s are at Tredegar Park, Coronation Park, Glebelands, Pillgwenlly sports ground, Kimberley Park, Shaftesbury Park and

Broadway.

Walking, cycling and leisure sports

To the south of the city lies the extensive Caldicot and Wentloog Levels and Newport Wetlands Reserve. The Wetlands reserve opened in March 2000 as a mitigation for the loss of mudflats caused by the building of the Cardiff Bay Barrage. A Local Nature Reserve is established at Allt-yr-yn. Newport City footbridge is a cycle and pedestrian bridge in Newport city centre linking the east and west banks of the River Usk. A cycle and pedestrian walkway on the west bank of the River Usk links Newport city centre at

Crindau Crindau () is a Victorian inner-city area just north of the city centre in Newport in south-east Wales. It lies within the Shaftesbury electoral district (ward) and community (parish). Crindau is roughly bounded by the Monmouthshire canal to th ...

to central Caerleon. There is a marked heritage trail in Caerleon. A cycle and pedestrian walkway is on both banks of the River Usk. The East bank path links Newport Bridge to Lliswerry. The West bank path links Newport Bridge to Newport Transporter Bridge and to Lliswerry via Newport City Bridge. It is therefore possible to walk or cycle from the north to the south of the City whilst largely avoiding public roads. The Celtic Trail cycle route and

National Cycle Route 4 Between these, the route runs through Reading, Bath, Bristol, Newport, Swansea and St David's. Within Wales, sections of the route follow branches of the Celtic Trail cycle route. Route The total length of the path is 443.6 miles and takes a ...

passes through Newport. The main municipal leisure sports facilities are based at Newport Centre in the city centre,

Newport International Sports Village Newport International Sports Village is a multi-sport complex located at Lliswerry in the southeast of the city of Newport, Wales, Newport, South Wales. It is known locally as Spytty Park, the name coming from the original Spytty Fields on whi ...

at Lliswerry and the Newport Active Living Centre at Bettws. There is a purpose-built indoor

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

arena at the Glebelands. The city has a thriving Scout District.

Sport

:''See also :Sport in Newport, Wales''

Boxing

The boxer David Pearce was born in Newport.

Rugby

was established in 1874 and was one of the founder members of the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...

in 1881. Newport was the only side to beat the (otherwise) Invincible

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

of 1963–64 and has also beaten the other two major Southern Hemisphere sides,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, in its history. Since the introduction of regional rugby franchises in Wales in 2003, Newport RFC now play in the Welsh Premier Division and operate as a

feeder club In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful pl ...

to the

regional team, who play in the

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

. While the Dragons play at Rodney Parade near Newport city centre, Newport RFC play the majority of their home games at

in the Spytty area of the city. Nine other rugby union teams playing in the Welsh League are based in Newport; Newport Saracens, Pill Harriers, Newport High School Old Boys, Bettws,

, Hartridge, Rogerstone, St Julians High School Old Boys and Whiteheads. Newport had a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

club called the Newport Titans which played in the Welsh Conference Premier until it folded in 2012.

Football

Newport's best known

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club is Newport County, who were formed in 1912 and joined the

in 1920. Newport County have played in the second tier of English football and spent over 60 seasons in the Football League, reached the last 16 of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

, won the

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup (), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the most prestigious of the cup competitions ...

in 1980 and subsequently reached the quarter-finals of the

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

in 1981. They were relegated from the Football League in 1988 and went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

the following year. The club re-formed in 1989. They secured promotion back to the Football League for the 2013–14 season after a 25-year absence and now play in

Football League Two The English Football League Two, simply known as League Two and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet League Two, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League Two is the fourth division of the English Football League (EFL ...

. Newport is also home to

Cymru South The Cymru South is a regional association football, football league in Wales, covering the southern half of the country. It initially had clubs with semi-professional status. Together with the Cymru North, it forms the second tier of the Welsh fo ...

(Welsh pyramid tier 2) side Newport City and Ardal South East league (tier 3) Lliswerry. A number of teams play in the Gwent County League tier 4:

, Newport Civil Service, Newport Corinthians,

Pill Pill or The Pill may refer to: Drugs * Pill (pharmacy), referring to anything small for a specific dose of medicine * "The Pill", a general nickname for the combined oral contraceptive pill Film and television * ''The Pill'' (film), a 2011 fil ...

and

. Tier 5: Albion Rovers, Graig and Newport Saints. Tier 6: Riverside Rovers. The city has its own league, the Newport and District Football League, which is part of the

Welsh football league system The Welsh football league system (or League system, pyramid) is a series of association football, football leagues with regular promotion and relegation between them. It consists of four main tiers, as well as lower local leagues. While most W ...

and consequently some Newport clubs field teams in the Gwent County League. Lovell's Athletic were a fairly well known team in the mid-20th century – due to the suspension of League football during the Second World War they were the premier team in the city, as Newport County did not field a side. During this period they managed to reach the 3rd round of the FA Cup in the 1945–46 season. Dragon Park (Welsh: ''Parc y Ddraig''), the

Football Association of Wales The Football Association of Wales (FAW; ) is the Governing bodies of sports in Wales, governing body of association football and futsal in Wales, and controls the Wales national football team, its Wales women's national football team, correspo ...

' National Football Centre, is located at the

. The centre also provides the headquarters for the Welsh Football Trust.

Golf

The city is home to the

, a five-star conference resort and home of the Wales Open, the annual

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

golf tournament. The resort was the venue for the All*Star Cup celebrity golf tournament in 2005 and for the

. The city has high-quality golf facilities at Llanwern Golf Club, Peterstone Golf Club, Parc Golf Academy in Coedkernew and Newport Golf Club and Tredegar Park Golf Club in

has a good quality nine-hole municipal course, driving range and clubhouse. Within a short drive of Newport are golf clubs at St Mellons, Dewstow, Shirenewton, St Pierre, GreenMeadow, Woodlake,

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

and Raglan.

Cycling

The

at Lliswerry includes the Wales National Velodrome, the head office of Welsh Cycling.

Tennis

Newport was a key venue for British Tennis. The 'World Group' Ties for the 1906 International Lawn Tennis Challenge (forerunner to the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

) were hosted at Newport Athletic Club.

Other sports

The Newport International Sports Village has been home to Newport Cricket Club since moving from Rodney Parade in 1990. For many years the city had a

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

team

Newport Wasps Newport Wasps were a British motorcycle speedway team based at Somerton Park and then the Hayley Stadium in Newport, Wales, Newport, South Wales, from 1964 to 2012. The Wasps logo incorporates the traditional black and amber colours of the City ...

but the team was disbanded in 2012. Newport is one of three main cities where British baseball is still played – the others are

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

– and the city hosts an international match every four years at Coronation Park. South East Wales Regional Swimming Pool is located at Newport International Sports Village. Newport Tennis Centre is also located at the complex and is a municipal multi-sport facility for

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

(indoor and outdoor),

five-a-side football Five-a-side football is a version of minifootball, in which each team fields five players (four Outfield#In association football, outfield players and a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper). Other differences from association football ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

, and squash. Newport Squash Club has four courts situated in the grounds of Rodney Parade and the club operates a public pay-per-play arrangement there. St. Joseph's Amateur Boxing Club is situated on George Street and is the home club of

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

i-born 2006

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

bronze medallist Mo Nasir and 2010 Commonwealth Silver medallist Sean McGoldrick. Treetops Shooting Ground, Coedkernew is one of Britain's best-equipped

clay pigeon shooting Clay pigeon shooting, also known as clay target shooting, is a shooting sport involving shooting at shooting target#Clay pigeons, special flying targets known as "clay pigeons" or "clay targets" with a shotgun. Despite their name, the targets ...

grounds and often hosts competitions between local shooting clubs and university clay shooting clubs from around South Wales and South West England. Newport hosted the International Cross Country Championships (1903–1972) on six occasions (1906, 1911, 1921, 1927, 1933 and 1955) at

Racecourse. Newport has a Skittle Alley League consisting of over 50 teams who play their league games on a Friday evening.

Horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

was held at Newport Racecourse, Caerleon, from the 1840s until it closed in 1948. In its final year of racing the course staged the Welsh Grand National for the only time.

Annual sporting events

The city is currently home to a number of annual sporting events, including: *The Wales Open

golf tournament *The Elemis Invitational Trophy

tournament *The Welsh Open world ranking snooker tournament *The World Cup of Pool *The Newport Half Marathon

Local media

Newport's local newspaper is the South Wales Argus, which is published in the city and distributed throughout the city and surrounding area. There is also
daily Newport edition of the Western Mail
that serves the city, along with its digital publicatio
NewportOnline
ref name="Knapman"> – the city's most-read online news platform. Local television news programmes are BBC Wales Today and ITV

Wales at Six ITV News'' Wales at Six'' is the evening news programme broadcast and produced by ITV Cymru Wales. Overview ''Wales at Six'' and all other ITV Wales news programming is broadcast live from studios at Assembly Square in Cardiff Bay, with a Nort ...

. Local analogue radio broadcasting licences cover the Cardiff/Newport area; the FM licence is held by Communicorp, broadcasting as

Capital South Wales Capital South Wales is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global Media & Entertainment, Global as part of the Capital (radio network), Capital network. It broadcasts to Cardiff and Newport, Wales, Newport and the ...

from

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay (; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it is the river mouth of the River Taff and River Ely, Ely. The body of water was converted into a lake as part ...

and the AM licence is held by

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

, broadcasting as Smooth Wales, however the AM frequencies, 1305 and 1359, were switched off on 12 October 2020 but Smooth continues to be broadcast on DAB. The local DAB ensemble is South Wales and Severn Estuary (12C). Heart South Wales, also from Cardiff Bay, is also available in the Newport area. Newport has several

internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

stations, the most popular of which is Newport City Radio.

Twinning

Newport is twinned with: * Heidenheim, Germany (since 1980) *

Kutaisi Kutaisi ( ; ka, ქუთაისი ) is a city in the Imereti region of the Georgia (country), Republic of Georgia. One of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, it is the List o ...

, Georgia (since 1989)

Former relations

* Guangxi Province, China, from 1996 to 2019 (defunct) Newport City Council voted unanimously on 23 July 2019 to effectively end relations with the Guangxi Province region of China. 38,000 people had petitioned the council to end its twinning agreement due to the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, which takes place in the Guangxi town of Yulin each year. Council Leader Debbie Wilcox, Baroness Wilcox stated that while the council had previously written a strong letter to officials from Guangxi, this had been ignored, and that cutting ties was now necessary. The Council says it will now lobby the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

and the Great Britain–China Centre on the issue of protecting dogs.

Freedom of the City

The following people, military units and Groups have received the Freedom of the City of Newport.

Individuals

* Godfrey Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar: 1909. (Borough of Newport) *John Moses: 1909. (Borough of Newport) *Albert Augustus Newman: 1922. (Borough of Newport) *

James Henry Thomas James Henry Thomas (3 October 1874 – 21 January 1949) was a Welsh trade unionist and politician. He was involved in a political scandal involving budget leaks. Early career and trade union activities Thomas was born in Newport, Monmouth ...

: 1924. (Borough of Newport) *John Parry: 1927. (Borough of Newport) * Horace Sampson Lyne: 1934. (Borough of Newport) *John Moxon: 1935. (Borough of Newport) * William Royse Lysaght: 1936. (Borough of Newport) *Frederick Phillips: 1936. (Borough of Newport) *John Lloyd Davies: 1936. (Borough of Newport) *

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

Lord Montgomery of Alamein: 1945. (Borough of Newport) *Mary Ann Hart: 1954. (Borough of Newport) *

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

Aubrey Hames: 19 February 1998. (Borough of Newport) *Sir Harry Jones: 8 April 2004. (City of Newport)

Military units

*The South Wales Borderers: 1947. (Borough of Newport) *The Royal Regiment of Wales: 1969. (Borough of Newport) * 104th Regiment

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

(

Volunteers Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergenc ...

): 1978. (Borough of Newport) *The

: 2001. (Borough of Newport) *The Merchant Navy Association (Red Duster): 2002. (City of Newport) * HMS Severn, RN: 2006. (City of Newport)

Organisations and groups

* Newport County Association Football Club: 2013. (City of Newport) * Newport Rugby Football Club: 2013. (City of Newport) *The

: 29 June 2021. (City of Newport)

References

External links

*
Port of NewportNewport's War Dead
at newportpast.com {{authority control Cities in Wales Populated coastal places in Wales Principal areas of Wales River Usk Port cities and towns in Wales