Tiger Bay and the World

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2009 (The Manic Street Preaches wrote this song for veteran songstress, Dame Shirley Bassey, which was included on her 2009 CD. This clip is from her concert TV Special)

Shirley Bassey - The Girl From Tiger Bay (2009 Live at Electric Proms)

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When Mo Jannah moved to Cardiff from Birmingham 14 years ago he had expectations of what Wales would be like.

But what he did not expect to find was Butetown - "a vibrant multi-cultural community with deep roots" .

Here he explores how south Wales' industrial past attracted people from all over the globe to settle in the docklands of Cardiff leading to the creation of one of the UK's oldest multi-cultural communities.

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Butetown, 1960s

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Frank Hennesy - Cardiff Born Cardiff Bred

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Tiger Bay starring Hayley Mills - FULL MOVIE (1959)

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Butetown and 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, which became known as ‘Tiger Bay’ This kaleidoscope of settlers helped to build the docks, worked aboard the ships and helped to service this industrial and maritime city.

Tiger Bay, now known as Cardiff Bay – Cardiff’s dockland district – is Wales’ oldest multi-ethnic community. Sailors and workers from over 50 countries settled here. Some of the largest communities included the Somalis, the Yeminis, and Greeks. Residents of many races and backgrounds socialised together and intermarried, creating a distinct community. Tiger Bay was also notorious.

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On the eve of the Great War, Cardiff’s trade in coal was at record levels of 10.5m tonnes per annum; there were more than 100 coal exporting businesses and around seventy firms managing over 300 ships. Losses over the course of the war - principally from German U Boat attacks - saw more than 200 of these ships sunk. The sinkings took place not only around the coast of Wales and the British Isles but also in the Mediterranean and off Norway. Cargoes included, wheat, sugar, iron ore,steel, oil military/government stores and, not surprisingly, coal. Tragically there was great loss of life among the crews of these ships. During WW1, the number of overseas seafarers grew as the British men were called up to fight and many African, West Indian, Arabian and Asian seamen were hired to fill the jobs. It was thought that being recruited from regions of the world with hotter climates, the new crewmen would be better able to tolerate the back-breaking work and the searing temperatures of the ship’s engine room and so the recruits were largely used as firemen, trimmers and donkeymen. Whether or not that thinking was true, they were certainly less able to withstand a torpedo or mine as it was the engine room that was the most vulnerable part of the ship in U-Boat attacks. Many of these were in lodging in Tiger Bay. Analysing our lists of sailors lost to U-boat attacks, we find 319 overseas seafarers that were shown as having lodgings in the many boarding houses in the Butetown and Tiger Bay areas. More than two-thirds of these were employed in the engine room .