Hear more about this location(Need help with RealPlayer?)On the waterfront you'll see this bronze sculpture of a young local couple with their dog created by John Clinch in 1993. It celebrates the people who lived and worked locally in Cardiff Bay.
Cardiff Bay, Butetown or Tiger Bay as it is also known is very different to how it used to be.
As a result of growth in Butetown during the 19th and early 20th centuries the surrounding dockland area grew into a cosmopolitan community with seafarers from all around the world making Cardiff their home. It is estimated that people from at least 50 nationalities settled in this area.
This kaleidoscope of settlers helped to build the docks, worked aboard the ships and helped to service this industrial and maritime city.
Singer Shirley Bassey, one of the area's most famous people, is a good example of the intermarriage and multicultural mix of the area. Her English working-class mother Eliza and father Henry, a Nigerian sailor, lived in the ethnically mixed area which became known as Tiger Bay.
There have been many versions of how Tiger Bay got its name. One theory is that seafaring men entering the Bristol Channel to come into Cardiff referred to the very rough water as looking like raging tigers.
The area was a magnet for people who were really into their music - visiting places like the Casablanca, the Quebec, the Big Windsor, the Westgate, the Bute, the Ship and Pilot and many more. There were over a hundred pubs in Tiger Bay, many of which have disappeared now.
As well as the young Shirley Bassey, the musicians who'd keep the locals entertained included guitarists Victor Parker, Joe and Frank Deniz.
The area was a haven for black American servicemen who were shunned by communities near their bases in England. Read former GI Johnny Lassiter's memories.
your comments
Sarah Burnell from Pencoed
A wonderful place to spend the day, free parking on a Sunday and Harry Ramsdens makes it an affordable outing for the kids. Great walks, street markets and atmosphere - nothing not to like and the shops are fabulous too!
Cath Haywood from Porthcawl
What a fabulous place. On a sunny day you feel like you are somewhere abroad what with all the cafe/bars etc. We had a wonderful day here on Sunday 22 June 2008.
Allan Lee, formerly from Canton
So different from my memory of working as an apprentice on the docks in 1942, when that area was the Mount Stuart dry docks. Is the Packet pub still there in Bute Street? They served a great hot rum and peppermint there in the big freeze of 1947! (and at a price even I could afford).
(Editor's Note: Yes, the Packet is still there in Bute Street - one of the few local pubs to survive successive waves of redevelopment)
seren from somewhere only we know
went there the other day. its cool. but much too expensive. but all together it was a good day!
Flip from Vlissingen, Netherlands
I've visited the place last summer, enjoyed it a lot, took a picture and added it to my weblog at
http://tinyurl.com/aqz6e
Thanks for the information!
John Leonard from Ystra Gwlch.
I can remember going there with my gramps.
We saw the big ships and it was the first time I had fish and chips. Great.
maria, caerphilly
Come on Cardiff Bay, lets make the waterfront for all to enjoy besides those willing to spend a fortune on food and drink.
