I never planned to go to Wales thinking Wales? Boring. It’s anything but…
Loving history like I do, it’s an interesting place. To me, anyway. This was one of the big coal capitols of the world. At its height it moved 11 million tons through Cardiff harbor a year. I cant even imagine what that must have looked like with train car after train car being loaded onto ships. Ships coming in from all over. The town was built on it.
It made a lot of people very rich. During the Victorian era. I’m sure Cardiff was a mix of the wealthy and the working class who worked the docks. People from around the world who crewed the shipped coming into the harbor settled here, representing many countries including Somalia, Yemen and Greece. The area around the docks became a multiracial community.
After World War 2 coal production almost completely ceased leaving Cardiff in economic decline. Refugees came from war torn countries in the 1970-80s.
The bay was redeveloped in the 1990s into a place for entertainment and water activities. The Welsh parliament is there. There is a large arts center there.
Nowadays Cardiff relies on finance, tech, retail and tourism. Cardiff gets 21 millions tourists a year!
Cardiff Bay in 1890s and today.
