Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of his book The Tiger Bay Story, one of its favourite sons, author and social historian Neil M.C Sinclair, talks to Chris Andrews about a vital part of Cardiff’s history.
What prompted you to want to write your story in the first place?
I always thought that people outside of the community had a very negative, stigmatized view of us, but I knew the truth. After a period of travelling I returned home in the early 90’s and I noticed that whenever the press were reporting about a contemporary issue in that area, they’d always use phrases such as “terrible Tiger Bay.” At the time there was also a local magazine in which I started writing positive stories about how it used to be. It took like wildfire. Shortly after, I started working for Butetown History and Arts and I produced a magazine for them where I continued to tell the stories. So that’s when I started to compose what eventually became The Tiger Bay Story.
What do you think made Tiger Bay such a tight knit community?
There were no TV’s back then, everybody would gather on the corners and just chat. The focal point of every household was the fireplace. My mother would light the fire and that being the only source of heat meant everybody would migrate to it. It was in that setting that stories were shared and bonds created.
What characters from the community do you remember?
My mother had wonderful stories, because Tiger Bay was even more wonderful when she was young. I grew up in the pre-demolition community, also knowing stories from the turn of the twentieth century. People tended to have larger-than-life personalities and she’d be fascinated by some of the people with nicknames like, The Bengal Tiger, One Eyed Joe. There was Aloisie, an old Arab man who used to have a donkey and cart, who would let us all climb on to his cart.
From what I’ve heard, music always had a big part to play in the community too.
Every street had its own pub, and every street also had somebody who could produce music without knowing a note. Quite often, you’d be playing in the street and somebody would say “You’d better get down the pub, your mum’s singing.” We’d all climb on the window ledge to see what was going on.
If you could recommend one place in Wales to someone who has never visited before, what would you pick and why?
That place is found within the memories of the last generations of the old Tiger Bay community, who paint pictures of the ancient trees that graced the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian architecture of old Loudoun Square – the real heart of Tiger Bay.
