‘An ordered disorder, but every movement is full of meaning’
MORE than a century ago Lee J Kyrle Fletcher provided a fascinating glimpse of Cardiff Docks.
In his Cardiff Notes: Picturesque And Biographical, published by the Western Mail, he wrote: “To understand fully all that Cardiff stands for in the great world of commerce you must stand on the Pier Head at Cardiff.
“Though why it is called Pier Head no-one knows; for it is not a pier but an open walk across the front of the docks bridged by a series of lock gates.
“If the tide is at the full, you may see ships from all parts of the world passing in and out with deafening hootings of syrens, shrill pipings of whistles, and the hoarse shouting of many voices.
“Beyond these nearer noises will sound loudly the rumble of the coal hoists, as the wagons are lifted bodily, turned over, and the contents sent rumbling into the depths of some huge steamer; and the constant hammer, hammer, from the repairing sheds, with the creaking of long trains of coal wagons, all help to make a scene which a Turner or a Whistler might have made into a picture.”
He goes on to say: “The stranger is simply held in a spell of utter bewilderment, there seems to be so much an ordered disorder, but every noise and movement is full of meaning.
“This goes on all round the clock, for night only changes the colour of the picture, the high electric arc lamps glowing with a pale brilliance.
“Down the ships’ sides come gangs of black-faced men and others go up to take their places, as the coaltrimmers with their shovels on their backs change gangs.”
We also learn how at night the furnaces of the copper works and ironworks cast a great glare of red light which makes every spar, mast and funnel “stand out clear, then sink into a twilight of reflected lights”.
Some of the old docks people, we are told, remembered the time when there was only one dock – the East Dock – where the potato boats from Ireland berthed.
Outside the Dock Gates, by the Merchants’ Exchange, was the bus terminus and a row of huge offices belonging to well-known coal firms.
As for the Cardiff Exchange: “It is situated in Mount Stuart Square, just off the end of Bute Road.
“It is a great square block of buildings where fortunes are made, telephone bells ring, and telegraph boys
run to and fro like ants in an ant heap.
“For here the great business of the City centres.
“Towards evening the private cars, the taxis and tramcars take the regular workers in Mount Stuart Square away to their homes, or their golf links or their music halls, and the square is deserted.
“The caretaking lady who cleans out the offices is seen in all her pride, standing in the office doorways where an hour or so ago the fair lady typist stood, and the tabby cat prowls round undisturbed by the pea shooters of the expert office boys.
“Come here at noon, and the nerve racking sounds of telephone bells and the click click of the typewriter will deafen the ear, but after hours, you can bring your best girl along the quietest thoroughfare in the whole of Cardiff.”
J Kyrle Fletcher knew the South Wales Echo journalist John O’Neil, the original “Man About Town”, and he writes: “He was a curiously shy, bearded man, with that owl-like look which so often accompanies the wearing of spectacles.
“A very reserved man, he was hard to draw into conversation, but when wound up and launched upon one of his favourite art topics, he was a master.
“He was the most learned man on European art I have ever met. He had travelled extensively and knew the contents of the Dresden Gallery, the collection at the Prado, or the pictures of the Louvre with a remarkable knowledge.”
Sadly, he goes on to say that: “He died with dramatic suddenness after being taken ill at the Mayor’s Banquet.”
You can send your letters or pictures to Brian Lee, Cardiff Remembered, South Wales Echo, Six Park Street, Cardiff, CF10 1XR or e-mail brianlee4@virginmedia.com please include your home telephone number.