Gyfieithu i'r Cymraeg
Butetown & Cardiff Bay is your community – and this is your community site. It is the aim of ‘my-local-community’ to help the residents, businesses and organisations in Butetown & Cardiff Bay to forge better relationships amongst each other - for the benefit of all concerned.
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Butetown (or The Docks) is a district in the south of the city of Cardiff. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early nineteenth century by John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose title the area was named. Commonly known as "Tiger Bay", this area became one of the UK's first multicultural communities with people from over 50 countries settling here by the outbreak of World War I, working in the docks and allied industries.
Some of the largest communities included the Somalis, the Yemenis, and Greeks, whose influence still lives on today. The first Mosque in the UK was built in Butetown in the mid 19th century, and a Greek Orthodox church still stands at the top of Bute Street.
In the 1960s, most of the original housing was demolished including the historic Loudoun Square, the original heart of Butetown. In its place was a typical 1960s housing estate of low-rise courts and alleys, and 2 high rise apartment blocks.
In the 1980s, the new Atlantic Wharf development was built on the reclaimed West Bute Dock, and has involved the construction of some 1300 new houses. Together with the developments in the Inner Harbour and Roath Basin, it was hoped this would spur redevelopment and employment in Butetown, but it seems not to have.
Some of the surviving areas of historic Butetown are now becoming prime office and retail locations.
Cardiff Bay (Welsh: Bae Caerdydd) is the area created by the Cardiff Barrage. The regeneration of Cardiff Bay is now widely regarded as one of the most successful regeneration projects in the UK. The Bay is supplied by two rivers (Taff and Ely) to form a 500-acre (2.0 km2) freshwater lake round the former dockland area south of the city centre. The Bay was formerly tidal, with access to the sea limited to a couple of hours each side of high water but now provides 24 hour access through three locks.
The original Cardiff Docks played a major part in Cardiff’s development by being the means of exporting coal from the South Wales Valleys to the rest of the world, helping to power the industrial age. The coal mining industry helped fund the building of Cardiff into the Capital city of Wales and helped the Third Marquis of Bute, who owned the docks, become the richest man in the world at the time.
