Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield's Disappearing Britain

Preserve, don't demolish!

Preserve, don't demolish! Preserve, don't demolish!

Preserve, don't demolish!

Demolish the Victorian, the Edwardian, the Georgian.

Replace it with skyscraper blocks.

Lambeth Council wants to demolish

the estate in Tulse Hill and rebuild.

Down with the old, up with the new.

'The Wellington Rooms today are handled by Liverpool Corporation.

'One of the problems we were having

'was getting enough time in the building...'

Howdy! '..because of health and safety regulations.'

So what... is there a problem over here?

Yeah, well, obviously there's falling plaster...

What, just down this way?

..from the height and weight of it is a little bit dodgy.

Gosh, the water is ruining the Adam ceiling.

Yeah.

Just up here. Just try and avoid that column there.

-That column?

-Mm.

And you couldn't just let us,

-um, just stay here for an hour or two and...

-I couldn't, no.

I mean, have you signed anything with Kevin or an indemnity form?

I don't mind signing an indemnity form.

I haven't got anything on me at the minute.

If we sign an indemnity form that if we fell through the floor,

we wouldn't sue Liverpool Corporation,

would that make any difference?

It would certainly help.

-So this is the really bad area?

-It is.

The problem with this is whilst there's been previous

moisture ingress,

when you dry a place out, you've got expansion

and contraction of material, so the plaster has shrunk

and it's just dried and come away.

Right.

And whilst the individual small pieces doesn't feel as though

they're heavy, if they fall from a decent height,

they're going to hurt.

-When it lands on your head?

-Yeah.

Well, we won't sue Liverpool Corporation anyway.

You might not sue,

but we could be... civil proceedings in terms of manslaughter or anything

like that, couldn't we, so...

But it feels very solidly constructed.

HE JUMPS UP AND DOWN

It doesn't move when I do that.

As I say, we've got joist ends here which are potentially rotten.

So... it's... we...

we don't want to take that risk, hence...

why it's a supervised visit.

Yeah.

'It was hard for me to imagine now,

'but when I last knew the Wellington Rooms,

'it was the Irish centre, full of dancing and light.

CEILI MUSIC PLAYS

MUSIC CONTINUES

MUSIC ENDS

You can't really understand what's happened to the Wellington Rooms

today in its isolation, without first understanding

what happened to the local community that once surrounded it.

MUSIC: Feel Like Jumping by Marcia Griffiths

When I first knew this area in the heart of Liverpool,

it was full of people - Irish, Italians, Greek, Somalis, Chinese,

all living side-by-side.

It was a real community then.

# Feel like jumping

# I feel like shouting now

# I feel like moving... #

It was called the Abercromby community

and existed for over 300 years.

Most of the buildings predate the Wellington Rooms themselves.

The community that surrounded the Wellington Rooms

has now disappeared.

I made my first student film here,

told through the eyes of Ruth and Bertha

about their friends and neighbours.

It was the street fit to live on, I'll be truthful.

When I came to live here, you could leave your doors open

and you wouldn't miss a thing.

I'll tell you how good it was.

At that time, I lived in the basement.

I used to open my basement window.

Well, it'd be my turn one day to make a pot of tea.

And buy cake, and pass it through the window

and they'd all sit around my window.

Well, then, it would be someone else's turn the next day

and that's the way it went on.

And harmless times, they were.

You understand what I mean. There was no badness.

No badness at all,

just dancing and...

..making a fool of ourselves.

But the decision was made to demolish the housing,

a lot of it Georgian, as seen here,

with no regard for the community.

LOUD BOOM

CHILDREN SHOUT EXCITEDLY

This is the exact spot where we filmed.

And this is what has replaced it.

The people from here,

in this area now taken over by the university,

were moved out to places like Cantril Farm or Kirkby,

miles from the city centre.

'We met with George Scully, who grew up here and who answered

'a radio appeal we made for the old community to come forward.'

All the beautiful houses like this on that side...

all the way up, demolished.

Beautiful houses on that way up, demolished.

The Faculty of Law in 1949-50 was one house on this corner.

Now it's a massive department up there on the corner

of Chatham Street and Myrtle Street.

Are there streets that have gone completely that were here?

Cambridge Street ran through there into Grove Street

with beautiful houses there.

They were demolished.

And the people were kept totally uninformed.

When we lived here, when there was a community here,

working class community...

there were no amenities but it was still a very rich community

but now there is just nothing

because the students have no affinity with this area.

Most of them come from other towns in England.

Most of them come from abroad so they have no affinity

and for half of the year, you know,

if you just take the academic year into account, they're not even here.

They go away, so all of this area is a ghost town.

'The irony is that George ended up as a student at the university.'

In fact, the English Department was built on my... my house!

Which I couldn't get my head around, you know.

It interfered with my studies!

When I was sitting in the common room, of a day, you know,

I was saying, the Lloyds used to live here

and the McNamees used to live here. We lived here.

And I was daydreaming all the time, you know.

So your house on Heath Street used to be right there?

And that is the English Department.

Now there's only the university left.

REGENCY DANCE MUSIC

This is the Wellington Rooms when they were built in 1815,

when the columned entrance was still open.

Sedan chairs brought the men and women

to separate entrances on either side of the building.

They met in the ballroom.

HOOVES GALLOP

Each year, the horse that won the Grand National

would be brought to the ballroom to drink from a bucket of champagne.

CORK POPS AND HORSE NEIGHS

The only balls to be cancelled during those years

were for the Boer War and the death of Queen Victoria.

It didn't seem to put anyone off that the Wellington Rooms

were built next to the biggest workhouse in Britain.

Built in 1769, the workhouse had 4,000 people.

In 1923, much of the wealth had left Liverpool

and the building was sold.

For many years, it became the Rodney youth centre

and served the local community.

In 1965, the Wellington Rooms became the Irish Centre

and the spiritual home of Irish life in Liverpool.

There was massive Irish immigration to Liverpool

during the 19th century.

By 1860, 20% of Liverpool's population was Irish,

mostly the poorest and worst paid.

There was a lot of anti-Irish feeling.

You were involved with this place for years and years and years.

I was. I was involved from when it opened in '64

until about three years before it closed down, late '80s.

And I used to work here regularly.

Virtually every Sunday night, I did the reception desk here.

-The reception desk?

-Which was this failte reception, yes.

So show us around.

And you met your wife here?

-Let's go into the big room.

-Yes.

I...

I came here from the time it was opened.

At the same time as I was coming here,

my wife was helping out in the kitchens and we met here.

-And...

-And fell in love?

Fell in love and got married and had our reception in this room.

This ballroom, and... You can see the remains of the frieze

along part of it and you can imagine that,

beautifully painted and decorated

and all the rest of it.

And this was the dance floor here

and down at the back, you had chairs and tables where people sat.

IRISH WALTZ

APPLAUSE

-Hello!

-Hello.

Hello!

-Say bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

During the '80s, this ballroom was absolutely full every Friday

and Saturday night because big bands like Big Tom And The Mainliners

and Brendan Shine and people like that

were coming over from Ireland...

Because there's a stage over there, isn't there?

And that's the stage there.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

BAND PLAYS DIRE STRAITS' WALK OF LIFE

# Here comes Johnny and he'll tell you the story

# Hand me down my walkin' shoes

# Here comes Johnny with the power and the glory

# Backbeat the talkin' blues

# He got the action, he got the motion

# Oh, yeah, the boy can play

# Dedication, devotion

# Turning all the night-time into the day

# He do the song about the sweet lovin' woman

# He do the song about the knife

# He do the walk

# He do the walk of life

# He do the walk of life. #

HAPPY CHATTER

Francie, you all right?

SHE GIGGLES

People came here

because this was the place where the Irish community on Merseyside met.

And this was the place where they, er, carried on their cultural,

-social...

-It was a happy place?

-A very, very happy place.

And, um...

It was also a place where people could come in and feel at home.

-Yeah.

-They...

I mean, I, as you can hear from me, my Irish accent has not left me.

And you could come in here and talk whatever way you would talk

and nobody would be passing remarks and things like that.

-Those kind of little things that mean so much.

-Yeah.

These are future plans submitted for the Wellington Rooms.

-Do you think it has a future, the building?

-No.

I don't think the building has a future,

unless some multimillionaire comes along

and has got a few millions to spare and he can do it up

but I don't know what it could be used for.

It certainly could not be used again ever as an Irish centre

because the Irish community could not support it.

There are not enough people here at the moment.

You said there were so many strict rules with English Heritage

that made it very difficult?

Well, it's a Grade II listed building

so every time you want to get anything done,

you have got to get the approval of English Heritage.

And what we've found, when I was on the executive committee here,

was that as soon as English Heritage were involved,

the cost of everything went up.

There has, however,

been some recent talk of the University taking over the building.

So, which was the spot?

'Sean fell in love with his wife the first moment he saw her

'in the Wellington Rooms.'

And what happened?

I walked across the room, having consumed a couple of pints of beer,

and said, "I saw you across the crowded room," and all that shit,

and she thought I was some sort of drunken eejit.

But to cut a long story short,

we had a dance before the end of the night

to The Ballad Of James Connolly...

..and we're together since.

That's fantastic.

And you saved a ticket or something.

Yeah, that's correct. It was from the night.

She gave me her phone number.

Still got that.

Yeah, there's the ticket and there's the phone number.

The ticket from the night. And we've still got the same phone number.

And it's great that you've been in love ever since.

Well, he phones me at least once a day in work and then I say,

"I love you, Sean. Love you, love you,"

and everyone goes, "Oh, God..."

But, yeah, I do. Still very close.

You do everything together.

-We do everything together, don't we?

-Yeah.

Not sad, we have got lots of friends as well,

but we do do everything together.

# A great crowd had gathered

# Outside of Kilmainham

# Their heads all uncovered

# They knelt to the ground

# For inside that grim prison

# Lay a brave Irish soldier

# His life for his country

# About to lay down

# He went to his death

# Like a true son of Ireland

# The firing party

# He bravely did face

# Then the order rang out

# Present arms and fire

# James Connolly fell into... #

It's a building that has inspired a lot of love.

When the Irish Centre closed,

people literally took to the roof to protest.

The staff here will stay on the rooftop protest

as long as necessary.

The rooftop protest lasted six months, but it failed...

..and the Wellington Rooms have been empty since.

That's it, just come towards me a little bit more.

We got a call from Liverpool Planning

that they were about to announce a potential £8 million scheme

with the University to save the Wellington Rooms.

But it didn't seem to actually add up to much.

Well, we've still yet to define the detail of it all,

so we've started that process.

We will get a 12-month exclusivity which will allow us

to go through the architectural, the costings,

and then to look at potential sources of funding.

And then we'll take all of that back to the city council

and see where we are. We're very lucky, I think,

having the universities very keen on being involved,

cos that answers the big question

of how are you going to use this building?

It all sounded very hazy to me.

I got the distinct feeling they made the announcement

just to keep us happy.

THUNDER RUMBLES

WATER DRIPS RAPIDLY

'Barbara and Ellen met 70 years ago at the Wellington Rooms

'and they're still best friends.'

Hello!

-So, have you come to go dancing today?

-Pardon?

-Are you going to come and do some dancing?

-Yes, we are.

-Yes.

-You are?

Yes, we are. We're looking forward to it.

And so, for how many years did you dance here?

From...1961

until it closed.

-Until it closed.

-Yeah.

-So, were you teenagers then?

-Yes.

All right.

-Oh, here's where we had our fun.

-Oh, yeah.

-Do you remember?

-Oh, yeah.

Do you know, it's lovely to see it again, though.

Even though it's not usable, it's lovely to see it.

It brings back everything.

-It hasn't deteriorated, really.

-No.

-Look at the chandelier.

-I know, yeah.

Think of all the dancing I did here when I was young.

We didn't have a care in the world then.

-I haven't now, thank God. But, erm...

-All friends together.

You can just hear that music from years ago.

You know, just being here.

And the laughter, the fun.

Oh, fantastic.

-This is where we used to sit, over here.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Actually, on that picture, that's where we were sitting.

Bet you can remember everything about it.

Look at that.

SHE GASPS

-Gosh, the roof is leaking.

-Oh, look at that.

-Wow.

You'd wonder how they could let it go into such a state of disrepair.

-Yeah.

-And do nothing about it.

'I really hope the university plans work out.

'In the meantime, I just had to see dancing

'and hear music again in the Wellington Rooms.'

CEILI MUSIC PLAYS

Wow, look at that.

It's really screwed up.

'The Coal Exchange was my favourite building

'when I lived in Cardiff and when I recently read that it was

'faced with demolition, I came back to visit my old friend.'

-Hi.

-Hi, come on in.

-Nice to see you.

-I'm Louisa.

Through here is the main hall,

which we're not allowed into any more.

The council has put a restrictive order on it

because they believe it is dangerous.

-But we can't go in.

-Unfortunately, no.

You don't get to argue with the council

health and safety department.

They say it's dangerous, they're the bosses.

Why do you think they wanted to close it?

I think that's a very long story.

Let's take you upstairs to the office and we can tell it.

-All right.

-Come on into our office - "Save The Coal Exchange".

-And this is Ian, who is one of the other directors.

-Hi.

-Pleased to meet you.

-So, what have we got here?

This is some of the stills of the building in occupation

and that is the floor of the exchange full of the traders.

ECHOING VOICES

BELL DINGS

TYPEWRITERS CLACK

BELL DINGS

Albert Alexander, the last working member of the Coal Exchange,

was 99 when this interview was given.

I was 24, so that would have been 1925.

And I was the youngest member on the floor of the Exchange by 30 years.

I was really a kid.

It was fabulous, you know.

I had to dress in striped trousers,

spats - black shoes - spats and striped trousers,

and my membership was 323.

I finished up number three.

And I saw the thing finish.

When I knew it in later days, it had become a live events venue.

Then in 2013, it was suddenly closed.

Why do you think the council actually closed the hall down?

They closed it to allow developers

to make a large lot of money out of it.

At one point the idea was to build a 21-storey tower block here,

a facade retention scheme,

which would keep three quarters of the outside wall up

and then basically just build a tower block in the middle

with flats and apartments.

Which is pretty vile, really.

And I guess that's where the money is,

that's where they think the money is.

The money is per square metre. The more floors you've got,

the more square metres you've got, the more profit you make.

I so admire what you're doing.

It must take a lot of time and energy and...

Ian is the man who's here five days a week, unpaid, in the office.

But it has been really interesting.

I've done a lot of campaigning over the years,

I've never come across something where

there is so much public sentiment locally, so much support,

so much emotional attachment to the idea that this place

should rise again, effectively.

So this has taken a lot of your life.

All of it, really, at the moment,

-yeah, about the last eight or nine months.

-All of it?

-Yeah.

It's called obsession, really.

-Ian is working here full-time.

-Yes.

-And the rest of us help out.

I don't know how long I can carry on.

-Just physically it's getting a bit difficult...

-Is it?

..and emotionally. Yeah.

The Coal Exchange was also like a club for the hoorays of its day.

Champagne bottles were used as skittles.

It had its own vintners, tailors, and a dining club.

It's in the last historical area of Butetown,

the dock area of Cardiff, and that's all in a bad state of decay.

It's not just the Coal Exchange that has been left to rot

for the last 30 years.

It's also buildings like this, the Old Post Office,

built in 1881 by EJ Rivers in glorious Italian style

and now in serious decay.

The Cory Building, built in 1889,

architects Bruton and Williams, empty now for 20 years.

This magnificent former bank, built in 1926 by Palmer and Holden

in classic Greek style, empty for over 20 years

and in a bad state of neglect.

The railway station,

built in 1843 and left to rot for the last 30 years.

All of these buildings, like the Coal Exchange, face an uncertain

future, even though they have a Grade II listing for preservation.

If they are left to rot long enough that they can be declared unsafe,

Cardiff Council can knock them down.

It's so expensive to develop a listed building that the council

put on an order which allowed them to come in, declare

it a danger to the public and then they can bring the bulldozers in.

Simple as that.

And then they can develop it without going to Cadw,

without going to the Assembly and things like that.

So you think, in the last few years,

there's been a sort of deliberate policy of not fixing the building?

-Yes.

-One of the councillors actually said to us that,

after they got the report, they were just told to

pray for a high wind and hope the place fell down.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

But you can't really understand the threat facing the Coal Exchange

without first looking at what has already

happened to the nearby docks in the Butetown community.

It was a gold rush equivalent in coal.

Enormous fortunes were made at the Coal Exchange,

where the first million-pound deal in the world was struck.

At its peak, the docks exported 14 million tonnes of coal a year.

But then the coal boom ended.

The Coal Exchange closed in 1958.

But no attempt was made to renovate it for some other use

or, for that matter, the historical buildings around it,

which have some of the best architecture in Cardiff.

There was far quicker and easier money to be made by filling in

the docks and tearing down the old warehouses and dock buildings.

There was absolutely no incentive to renovate.

New streets like this were built where the docks had been,

now lined with new houses.

And here's the development team, who decided to fill the docks in.

Here's another example of their work in the exact spot where

the Pierhead dock used to be.

I also discovered they're not too keen

on having their handiwork examined.

-I'm the manager of the site.

-Oh, good for you.

And it's a licensed-premises site,

so obviously you have to have permission to film.

-We can't just film here?

-No, sorry.

How strange.

No, sorry, it's a licensed-premises site,

so obviously you've got to go through our media department,

which is Tim Powell. You'll have to speak to him to confirm first.

Obviously, because I don't know what you're filming.

Well, we're just filming where the dock used to be.

-Yeah.

-What do you think of the development?

What do you think of this...

..yourself?

-Nothing. I don't think anything.

-You don't think anything?

-No. So if you want to speak to Tim Powell first.

-All right.

OK. We will. All right, thank you.

'The fight to save the Coal Exchange makes even more sense

'when I realise what has already been lost.

'Here are some examples of then and now.'

# Tiger Bay, Tiger Bay

# It's not very far from the docks

# When you get to Loudoun Square

# Turn to the right and you're not far from there

# Tiger Bay, Tiger Bay

# It's just like a fancy-dress ball... #

Butetown was a community made up of over 50 nationalities,

seen here in the film Tiger Bay.

-Whey!

-Whey!

Butetown was exceptional. There was absolutely no racial tension.

One of the quickest ways of finding a community's attitude to

racial discrimination is to see what it thinks of mixed marriages.

The sight of a white girl married to a coloured man can release

the most violent prejudices.

Does it happen in Butetown?

Why do you think things are so peaceable down here?

Why are things so peaceful?

This was all races mixing in together, was it?

This incredible community of over 50 nationalities was destroyed

in the rehousing, as was the Georgian Loudoun Square seen here,

which looks like this today.

So back to the Coal Exchange. What chance did it really have?

It slowly deteriorated until the late '70s

when it was decided to make it the home of the Welsh National Assembly.

But far from being its saviour,

this was when the building was really abused.

'I went to ask Ian if we could finally get into the hall,

'which I understood had been drastically changed

'since I had last seen it.'

No, you can't go in there.

We have actually had surveys done of our own to say it's safe

but, unfortunately, health and safety and the council has

so far refused to accept them.

Supposing you let us in there, what would happen?

If we let them in there and anyone knew about it, then

I would be liable for a £20,000 fine

and also six months of imprisonment.

Are you seriously, like, intimidated by that?

Erm... Yes, definitely, in some ways. I mean, intimidated enough.

I'm not intimidated by it, no, but I'm equally not going to

take you out on the balcony with a camera.

'It's hard to make a film about saving a building

'when you're not allowed to see it.'

It's down this way.

This is the place you're not allowed to go, I'm afraid,

which is the balcony.

That's actually the balcony?

On the second floor, yeah. So if you...

The wall in front of you also went in in 1970 or whatever and...

..there's actually a balcony here, like the one downstairs,

and they've put a wall in front of it to...

Just to fill in this space, basically, because now...

-It looks safe in there, though, doesn't it?

-No, it's not really.

-It's not safe?

-Yeah, no, no.

-Really? All right.

-Sorry.

All right. You're standing there to stop me going in?

That's right, yeah.

-All right.

-OK.

-OK, all right.

-Good.

OK, let's do it.

-I'm not going to make a run for it.

-OK, all right.

Well, if you do, we'll get some good workout

-because I'll rugby tackle you.

-You will what?

-I'll rugby tackle you.

-Oh, will you?

It would be a very good... good cinema.

I'm almost tempted to do it.

THEY LAUGH

'It is frustrating, though.

'Ian had actually been pointing out the false wall that had been

'put up in the '70s covering up the second gallery

'and putting in a false ceiling covering the glass roof.'

When I had last seen it as a student in the '60s,

the Coal Exchange looked like this,

with a second gallery and a glass roof.

There were offices all around the galleries

and people would shout their bids to the exchange floor.

In the '70s, the glass roof was covered in,

as well as the second gallery and the offices surrounding it.

This shows the exterior of the Coal Exchange up until the 1970s.

This is the main entrance. There was a restaurant to the right

and steps leading to the Exchange from the street.

Then it was decided to put in a car park,

which would double as a nuclear air-raid shelter.

The restaurant and main approach from the street were covered in.

The unique exchange floor, seen here,

a foot and a half below the normal floor where the bids were taken,

I learned had also been filled in.

Also, during the '70s development,

the original ornate wooden staircases were removed

and these put in their place.

'I've been talking to the council about getting into the building.

'A building I love and remember so well.

'But weeks of phone calls have got me nowhere.'

Urgh, jeez!

Lucky I do these push-ups in the morning.

CLATTERING GLASS SMASHES

'Cardiff Council say they've spent £900,000 on this scaffolding

'and the surrounding fence.'

Bit of a rickety old ladder, this. Jesus.

'I'm beginning to realise that my optimistic thoughts -

'that making an architectural piece would be easy and not so stressful -

'are wrong.'

Anyway, I can't get in. It's in terrible condition.

GLASS SMASHES

It's estimated that it will cost £35 million

to renovate the Coal Exchange.

Here are recent plans backed by the council.

Plans for a 21-storey tower block with 168 apartments.

These plans were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act

with much difficulty.

Cardiff Council have been accused of abusing the Emergency Powers Act.

These powers are normally used in a situation of real emergency.

For example, if you have an articulated lorry hitting a building

and it's looking perilously close to actually falling down.

Whereas, clearly, they've been drawn upon to...

facilitate certain...

actions or certain activity

and then no evidence of work going for many weeks and months.

So there are some issues here that don't add up.

'The sound of the capital city, Radio Cardiff.'

'Not everyone on the council supports what is happening

'to the Coal Exchange.

'I went to talk to councillor Neil McEvoy

'at the local radio station.'

So it's back to the chat. I've got councillor Neil McEvoy.

I've got DJ Silver and I've got Nick, back to the chat with Nick.

-Before I ran out and left you all...

-SHE LAUGHS

..we were talking about the Coal Exchange and other beautiful

buildings that are potentially going to be demolished.

Is that true, councillor? Is that in the council's policy at the moment?

It's not in the policy but it's certainly on the agenda.

In Cardiff, in Wales, there is

a complete lack of respect for our heritage and our history

and these great buildings are assets which should be cherished

and saved and used, like you said, for different purposes.

I think it would be criminal,

absolutely criminal, to demolish the Coal Exchange.

It any other country in the world it would be celebrated,

they'd have a museum, they'd have a visitor centre.

'This is the council's head of planning, Pat Thompson.

'He told me why he thinks the Coal Exchange should be demolished.'

Of course its purpose was as it is, a coal exchange, which meant

it was for the money men.

So there is this issue that in actual fact people whose

history and heritage is in the docks actually resent the people

who were making all the money on the back of them who were coal trimmers

in the docks or, of course, digging the coal up in the valleys.

Because they hate it because they see it as an example

of the people that made money on the back of their families.

This seemed like a bad excuse.

In fact, born and bred Butetowners like Betty Campbell

love the Coal Exchange.

When I was a child we used to look at it and think,

"What a wonderful building." But we never entered it.

And then times changed, and when I had been married 50 years

I had my Golden Wedding celebrations in this building.

And I stood in the middle of the floor and I said to myself,

"I bet you never thought you'd see

"so many black people in this place in one go."

So it was like a little victory for me.

But another evening that I had here was

when I retired as head teacher of Mount Stuart School in 1999.

And I didn't have an inkling of what was going to happen.

We were supposed to meet here to meet some staff,

we were going to go out.

When I came here, when my husband brought me here,

I could hear steel pans

and it was the children from Mount Stuart School who were playing

the steel pans as we walked in and when I went into the hall

and saw the people there, I just couldn't believe it.

STEEL PAN MUSIC

And I think that, with the Golden Wedding here,

were two of the most memorable evenings of my life.

The hall was opened in 2001 as an events venue.

FAST ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

# The trumpet sounds within my soul... #

UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC PLAYS

Then suddenly in August, 2013, in the middle of a concert,

Cardiff Council and the fire department closed the hall down.

It's been closed ever since.

I finally get permission to go inside the exchange hall.

LIGHTS POWER ON

'It's great to see Ian's enthusiasm for the building.'

So I would be bidding to you from here, for example?

This was the trading floor or just the floor.

This was the place where if you were standing you could actually

trade with people up there on the balcony.

So a man out there could come out and say, "I've got a ship

"going to Norway, leaving within two days, taking 1,000 tonnes of coal.

"What's the best price for it?" And people down here would bid for that.

And then at the same time other people would come in and do

deals with them about supplies for them and things like that.

Railway companies, paint companies for ships now.

People who sold pit props.

Because the boats went out with coal

and came back with pit props from Norway.

Often the boats went out and they didn't have a load to bring back.

Everyone wanted coal so they had agents all over the world

and one ship at least came back from New York full of tinned peaches.

An American came here to write about Cardiff

and he said you could buy tinned

peaches on the streets of Cardiff cheaper than you could in America.

Wow.

So this is how important Cardiff was in those days.

And the price of world coal was set here, at that time.

Ian has also agreed to show us

the back of the clock from the first-floor gallery

which up to now has been a no-go area.

Step this way.

This clock was made by a man who by then was called Spiridion.

He was a Polish refugee, possibly Jewish.

And they came over, I think,

when the Russians were expanding into Eastern Europe and...

Wow! It still works.

-It still works. It still keeps good time.

-Does it?

Yeah.

It's worth just listening to for a minute.

CLOCK TICKS

Six months after we left,

an investor came forward with serious plans

to develop it as a boutique hotel.

The people of Butetown deserve to see their community restored.

Let's hope it can get back some of the old magic it once had.

# Tiger Bay, Tiger Bay

# It's not very far from the docks

# When you get

# To Loudoun Square

# Turn to the right

# And you're not far from there

# Tiger Bay. #