Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Cardiff Bay
Lined with important national institutions, Cardiff Bay is where the modern Welsh nation
is put on display in an architect's playground of interesting buildings, large open spaces
and public art. The bay's main commercial centre is Mermaid Quay, packed with bars,
restaurants and shops.
It wasn't always this way. By 1913 more than 13 million tonnes of coal were being
shipped from Cardiff docks. Following the post-WWII slump the docklands deteriorated
into a wasteland of empty basins, cut off from the city by the railway embankment. The
bay outside the docks, which has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world (more than
12m between high and low water), was ringed for up to 14 hours a day by smelly, sewage-
contaminated mudflats. The nearby residential area of Butetown became a neglected slum.
Since 1987 the area has been radically redeveloped. The turning point came with the
completion of a state-of-the-art tidal barrage in 1999.
