The picture to the left was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1896.  Cardiff docks were handling massive exports of coal, steel and tinplate produced in South Wales for the world's industrial revolution. The tall masts in the background belong to ships waiting to sail around the world laden with the products of industries which scarred the once beautiful South Wales valleys so deeply that recovery is still not complete. 

King Coal was a despot and his rule could not last.  The docklands prospered, declined, achieved a final brief notoriety as "Tiger Bay" a few decades ago and were finally all but abandoned. The multi-ethnic community that had grown up around the docks suffered just as the valley communities suffered at the closure of the coal mines. 

The city of Cardiff, however, continued to thrive as the business and commercial centre of Wales and the last British Government decided to revive the docklands area. In 1987 the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation was charged with the task of regeneration. A great deal has been achieved. The best of the old buildings have been conserved, new offices, leisure facilities and housing have mushroomed. A huge barrage has been constructed and this encloses a 500 acre freshwater lake designed to be the focal point of the area now called Cardiff Bay. The new Welsh Assembly building was the subject of an architectural competition and the winning design is to be sited close to the landmark Victorian pier head offices. The Norwegian sailor's church (the white clapboard building in the colour picture above) serves to remind us of days gone by.