Cardiff Bay Redevelopment investigation.

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Cardiff Bay Redevelopment investigation

Cardiff is a city steeped in history and has undergone many changes and influences over 1500 years; initially with the settlements of the Celts in 500BC, and over many years Cardiff became a Roman Fort and Norman stronghold. In 1810 Cardiff was just a growing village of less than 2000 inhabitants surrounded by heavily tidal marshland and fed by two rivers, the Taff and the Ely. Laying closely to the south was Butetown, located in the Parish of Saint Mary's. Back then, Cardiff's main industry was the mining and transportation of coal, mainly by big 25 tonne load barges.

As the Industrial Revolution swept over the British Isles, demand for coal grew considerably. The Glamorganshire canal, which was built in 1794 to transport iron from the Merthyr ironworks to Cardiff, could not cope with the strain and as the iron and coal industry expanded the Taff Vale Railway was opened in 1840 to offer an alternative mode of transport for this and to connect the Cardiff and surrounding steelworks to the coal.

By this time John Crichton Stewart the 2nd Marquis of Bute had finished his development of the bay and had just opened the West docks. The building of docks continued untill around 1907 when the last dock, the Queen Alexandra had been built adding to the previous four. The opening of the West Docks gave Cardiff an advantage over other Welsh ports and soon coal from the nearby South Wales Coalfield was being used and exported along with iron and steel, whilst various products including oils and tin were imported. The city prospered, industry exploded and unemployment was rare.

The Cardiff docks soon transformed the bay and village in to an important, bustling city attracting big business, hundreds of workers and a whole new close-knit community known as Tiger Bay. In the Coal Exchange building the international price for coal was confirmed and the world's first £1 million deal was struck. At one time at least 50 different nationalities were represented in Tiger Bay, most of these people lived and worked in Butetown aboard the ships, in the steelworks or engineering and repairing. The residents of Tiger Bay certainly felt connected to the rest of the world - it was the economic capital of Wales. Many of the old residents comment on how life in Butetown was 'hard but lively', there was plenty of things to do, the community was vibrant and there were many clubs and events run by the residents.

In the Butetown community there were different noticeable areas; firstly the original housing of Victorian and Edwardian architecture for the wealthy and affluent, and later on, the working class homes, closer to the industrial areas. Business peaked in the bay area around 1910 when around 13million tons of coal were being exported from Cardiff docks. It seemed impossible at the time that the decline of Cardiff Bay could come about so soon, but the possibility of war was looming.

The Decline of Cardiff Bay

There were a few reasons behind the dramatic decline of Cardiff bay, it was a decline business prosperity overall wealth and the sense of community. Cardiff had always been hinged on its coal industry, it was surrounded by steel and ironworks and one of its main exports was coal. The productivity from the South Wales Coalfields had past its prime around 1920 and productivity was dropping constantly, which had a detrimental effect on the exporting from Cardiff Bay. This was greatly compounded by the fact that petrol was now being introduced as an alternative means of fuel and demand for petrol and petrol-burning industry superseded that of coal.

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During the war periods also, exporting lines across the Atlantic to other continents had to be cut off due to the German enemy ships and so forcing other countries who would have received their coal, steel or iron from Cardiff to seek out alternative sources nearby. Most of these countries never came back to Cardiff after the war.

Cardiff and Butetown were not nearly as prosperous as they once were and this was reflected in the state of the Tiger Bay area. Housing was deteriorating and the number of slums had increased, brothels became prevalent and there was less and ...

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