Patterns of migration Cardiff Bay
Rob Quinn Rob is Head of History and Politics at a school in Wrexham. He has worked as an examiner and is the author of several GCSE History textbooks, revision guides and magazine articles. Article links to: GCSE Unit 3D. Changes in Patterns of Migration, c.1500 to the present day
The development of Butetown Until the mid-twentieth century, immigrants in Cardiff were concentrated in the Butetown district which was to the south of the city centre in the area now referred to as Cardiff Bay. This area was dominated by docks that were developed by the second Marquess of Bute to export South Wales coal to the rest of the world. The Glamorganshire Canal joined Cardiff with Merthyr Tydfil in 1794 and a canal basin was in place at Cardiff Bay by 1798. In 1839 the docks were then built at the end of this canal by Irish immigrant labourers, with the area connected back to the South Wales valleys by the Taff Vale Railway, which opened in 1841. The impact of sea trade Merchant sailors came to the docks on ships from all over the world. Many sailors did not stay in Butetown 26
long as they were only there during the gap between their ships unloading and then taking on new cargo. However, working on ships was not a reliable form of employment and many merchant sailors would get left behind at ports all over the world if their services were suddenly no longer needed. As a result a lot of immigrants ending up settling in Butetown. They built a community together, opened local businesses and intermarried. Butetown was highly unusual in the extent to which men and women from different immigrant groups had families together. Butetown had originally housed many wealthy homeowners who owned businesses related to the trading and transporting of coal. As the nineteenth century progressed, they had moved to greener Cardiff suburbs. The large houses they left behind, especially around Loudoun Square, became more and more crowded as their owners sub-divided them into apartments or families took in lodgers to help pay their rent. Local legend has it that the nickname Tiger Bay comes from a woman who used to walk around with two tigers. Other people say that it was because Portuguese sailors described the conditions in Cardiff Bay as like sailing through a bay of tigers. Some have argued that it was the name given by sailors to any port town where they could find gambling, prostitution and fighting. Names of the 97 pubs that were in the area suggest that Butetown did see its fair share of violence and crime: House of Blazes, Bucket of Blood, Snakepit to name but a few. Even the 1959 film “Tiger Bay”, filmed mostly on location in Butetown, built its story around this reputation for crime. This reputation was part of the negative
