Above the city and overlooking the bay is Grangemore Park, a little oasis of wild flowers and grass stuck straight in middle of the sprawling, steaming mass of Grangetown below. It’s hard to believe this park was once a rubbish dump as late as 2000.
The industrial sculpture ‘Silent Links’ by artist Ian Randall which sits atop the hill is representative of the strong sense of identity of area known locally as ‘Strangetown’; the sculpture’s interlinking pieces are like Grangetown’s inhabitants: “ firm, with a sense of strength and unity.”
The taxi driver who takes us to the bottom of the hill has an altogether different idea:
“ I wouldn’t ever pick up from Grangetown after dark. I wouldn’t wait around here and I certainly wouldn’t live here. It used to be alright, but a lot of the older generation have died or moved out and the council’s moved a lot of the scum in.”
He is far from alone in Cardiff in his opinion.
At the bottom of the hill people tramp the wet, black streets along broken pavements between the old dockworkers terraced houses. Women in saris are pushing prams and an elderly man is walking an overweight black dog. The homes around the beautiful and imposing St Paul’s Church have Arabic writing in gold above the doorframes proclaiming, “Allah is Great”. The air smells of rubber and chip fat.
Once populated by dockers working in the old Tiger Bay, and now Cardiff’s most ethnically diverse area, Grangetown was built largely in the late 1800s and straddles two rivers that cut though Cardiff, the Ely to the West and the Taff to the East. By 1900 sea exports of coal and steel had transformed Grangetown into a Cardiff suburb with a population of 17,000.
Patti Flynne, 64, at the Channel View Leisure Centre in South Grangetown, who has lived in the area since she was born, insists:
“Anyone who says they’ve lived in Cardiff all their lives, they must be from near here, because that’s all there was. Llandaff and Ely were just tiny villages.”
Today, the population has dropped to just below 15,000 and nearly a quarter are non-Welsh. It’s always been a mixed race area, ever since foreign seamen met Welsh women and stayed put.
Freddie White, who describes himself as a Grangetown ‘elder’ claims their has never been racial tension historically:
“We’ve never seen colour here, only faces and people. 90% of the people I knew growing up were mixed race, all white mothers. Racism just never occurred to me.”
Patti Flynne adds:
“There was a lot of respect in those days. It’s political correctness, I think, that’s actually brought the divide in, people become more conscious of colour.”
Grangetown having a reputation as a place for outsiders has left it in some major difficulties. Along the Taff Embankment and down Avondale Road, prostitution is rife. Prospective Plaid Cymru councilor, Farida Aslam, whose party have been gaining ground in the once solidly Labour and now Liberal Democrat ward, has made targeting the problem a key part of her campaign:
“Prostitution is a major problem. Old ladies and families living in the area can’t open their windows at night, because you can hear the girls’ appreciative noises from across the street.”
Grangetown Liberal Democrat Councilor David Morgan explained how the trade had changed to suit the punters:
“Prostitution is a historical tradition here because of the docks, it’s a natural place for it to spring up, Patterns have been established but now it’s not really local girls, it’s mostly Eastern Europeans.”
Police in Grangetown are planning a high-visibility 10-month campaign to stamp out the problem, and one officer, Mel Rowlands, has been working under cover to ensure the efforts are correctly targeted.
But Police Constable Tony Shields also insisted that their targets were not the girls:
“Although we’re obviously interested in catching the sex offenders down there, we don’t want to put the girls in a desperate situation, it’s very hard to get right.”
A more recent problem is the emergence of street gangs, which local people insist is something that has only been noticeable in the last ten years.
Tony Shields said:
“Cardiff’s never had a gang culture before, and I’m hesitant to call it that because it creates a climate of fear around these troublemakers, and gives them a certain status. But as far as I can see it’s not racially motivated.”
He added:
“It’s mostly stoning of buses and vandalising property, but we do get a lot of trouble around Halloween, and we’ve been working with local shopkeepers to stop them selling kids eggs and flour.
“It’s like some of the kids just turn into Jamie Oliver on October 31st.”
Many people who live outside the area describe “Somali gangs” in particular as being a problem in Grangetown, but David Morgan believes this is a temporary culture clash:
“Grangetown has always been mixed race, and in particular the Somalis have got their own group but I don’t think they’re isolated. It will be a temporary barrier, but it is there now.
“There are some good support networks available, but we need to make sure people can access them.”
The local community if anything, is getting stronger in the face of recent rises in anti-social behaviour. Community action is centered around the Buzz Café, a vibrant little venue right in the heart of a crossroads between North and South Grangetown, brimful of activities for local people and provides drop-ins, access courses and discrimination services, and is a hub for community groups like the active Grangetown History society. Local residents meetings and community action groups are packed to the gills with battle-hardened old birds who are the local vigilantes, fiercely and lovingly protective of their home.
South Grangetown is also home to the newly established South Grangetown Communities First project, a Welsh Assembly initiative, following the appointment of Thoria Mohamed as project officer.
She co-ordinates projects that benefit people living in the area and said:
“In South Grangetown there are almost no facilities, there’s about four corner shops and that’s it. There’s a lack of employment opportunities and they hang around on the streets, especially kids under 15.”
She added:
“One of the most important things is it all must be community led, the community taking action. They must be the ones instigating the change.”
Many of the residents have been channeling the area’s non-conformist spirit into other pastimes. In Sevenoaks Park, a legal graffiti wall has been erected to dispel the notion that the art form has to be mindless vandalism. The area is also home to Welsh Baseball League Champions Grange Albion that began when foreign seamen played in the local parks. Mark Jones, chairman of the 101-year-old club said:
“You can really make your name playing baseball in Grangetown, it’s absolutely massive.”
It’s hard to imagine how you could ever know the real Grangetown, which outsiders see as racially divided and deprived, but where locals always champion their history and their community spirit.
David Morgan speaks lovingly of the area he has made his home:
“I like the variety of the people. You could be behind almost anyone in a queue at the shops, Somalis, Chinese, Iranian, Malays, Spanish.
“ There’s still proper pubs here with a proper welcome and everyone rubs along together very well. I wouldn’t change that.”
