Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England, traditionally part of the county of Staffordshire. The city was named after Lady Wulfruna, who founded the town in 985: its name came from Anglo-Saxon Wulfrūnehēantūn = "Wulfrūn's high or principal enclosure or farm". Many buildings and firms in Wolverhampton are named after her. Its name is often abbreviated to "W'ton" or "Wolves". The city council's motto is "Out of darkness, cometh light".

Music and arts

Wolverhampton has a number of live music venues; the biggest is technically the football ground, the Molineux stadium, but the biggest indoor venue is Wolverhampton Civic Hall, with a standing capacity of 3,000. Second to that is Wulfrun Hall (part of the same complex as the Civic Hall, which is owned and operated by the city council) which has a standing capacity of just over 1,100. There are also a number of smaller venues with capacities between 100 and 250: the Little Civic and the Wolverhampton Varsity being the most longstanding of these. The 18th century church of St John's-in-the-Square is a popular venue for smaller scale classical concerts. The city is also home to Regent Records, a choral and organ music recording company.
The Grand Theatre and the Arena Theatre are located in the city centre, with a multiplex Cineworld cinema located at Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield, and a smaller cinema, The Light House, housed in the former Chubb Buildings between the city centre and the rail station. While Cineworld caters mainly for popular tastes, showing Hollywood films and other big-budget films as well as some Bollywood films, The Light House shows a range of older and subtitled films as well as some selected new releases. The Light House has also played host to visual art shows, and incorporates a small café. The city's Arts & Museums service, run by the council, covers three sites: Wolverhampton Art Gallery, home to England's biggest Pop Art collection after that held at the Tate; Bantock House, a fine historic house with Edwardian interior and also museum of Wolverhampton set in Parks and Gardens; Bilston Craft Gallery with exhibitions of contemporary crafts. Eagleworks Studio in the suburb of Chapel Ash, run by a small artist group, which has periodic exhibitions and group shows. The city's main choral groups include the city of Wolverhampton Choir (a choral society founded as the Wolverhampton Civic Choir in 1947) and St Peter's Collegiate Church Choir, who perform cathedral style church services each week during term time.