Where’s Tiger Bay Gone Shipmates

In a dark blue, misty scene, five ghostly sailors from the old days of Tiger Bay stand around, looking confused. As they look out over Loudoun Square and see the 1960s tower blocks in front of them, they think they are in the wrong place.

In the mid-1800s, Loudoun Square was seen as one of the best parts of town, filled with decorative townhouses built for the workers who came to Cardiff for the growing coal trade.

By the late 1800s, richer families began to move away from Loudoun Square. But people from all over the world continued to settle in the area, forming a unique community made up of many different races, religions and languages.  Loudoun Square became known as “the heart of Tiger Bay.”    

After World War II, the demand for coal started to fall, and by the 1960s, most of the coal trade had stopped. Many people had lost their jobs, buildings were left empty, and houses started to fall apart.

To revive the area, the old townhouses along Loudoun Square were knocked down.  Communities were broken up as people who lived in the square were moved to other parts of the city.  The two blocks of flats we see in Jack’s painting, Loudoun House and Nelson House were built on Loudoun Square.  

These changes were just the start of rebuilding what we now know as Cardiff Bay.  But for the sailors in Jack's painting the Cardiff Bay we see today was worlds apart from the Tiger Bay that they had called home.