Sense of community at heart of splott
It’s always been Cardiff’s perpetually up-andcoming area, but the real reason people love the working class district of Splott is its sense of community, discovers Marcus Hughes...
ABOUT a year ago, someone asked a question in an internet forum – they were moving to Cardiff and wanted to know if they should consider Splott. “Now, I’m aware of Splott’s reputation,” they said. “But I don’t actually know what it’s like.”
In response, someone wrote: “It’s a little rough round the edges compared to Roath. But the chances of getting mugged or owt like that are so small it’s just not worth worrying about.”
Another said: “Spent my whole life in Cardiff, mostly different parts of Canton, Pontcanna and Cathays... and a couple of years on Moorland Road in Splott. Moorland Road is definitely the roughest area I’ve ever lived.”
You could predict the responses. Splott’s “reputation” has gone before it for years. Just like its name. Say it out loud and you can immediately understand why it’s so wellknown. It’s got a momentum all of its own and if you tell someone you live “in Splott” they’ll either laugh, emphatically repeat it back to you or ask you if you made it up.
There’s a lot more to Splott than a name, of course. There’s a rich history, a community and a microcosm of a radically-changed Cardiff.
It once existed in the shadows of the East Moors steelworks, whose closure in 1978 was a big part of the wider deindustrialisation of Cardiff, and was a tightly-knit community of steelworkers’ families living in rows and grids of terraced houses. Entire streets have disappeared since then and been replaced by parkland, where a row of trees replaces the view that would have been the huge steelworks.
Residents remember roads alive with children spending all day playing in front of long streets of open front doors. But, of course, it had its tough side and there are stories from the 1980s of groups of “Splott boys” heading to the docks to fight their equivalent down there.
More recently, Splott has become a place for first-time buyers to get their feet on the housing ladder, which has seen some claim the tide of gentrification is finally beginning to arrive on Splott’s doorstep.
And alongside it all, many of the people who live there now insist that the close community is still alive under the surface, though it may be a little hidden by a negative reputation that has stuck to Splott, like the working class areas of so many other cities.
Maria DeAbreu grew up in Splott in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and has run her popular hair salon Intense at 49 on Carlisle Street since 1990.
“When we were children growing up you knew everybody, absolutely everybody, both in your own street and in neighbouring streets because all the children played together and nobody moved,” the 54 year old said. “People just seemed to buy a house and settle so they would stay.” Maria’s father was a seaman in the merchant navy who settled in Splott to raise a family. Both her brothers worked in the steelworks and would join swathes of other employees (3,000 men lost their jobs when the steelworks closed) who made the afternoon trip from work to the long-derelict Grosvenor Hotel and the other pubs frequented by working men, most of which also closed down years ago. “When we were children we used to do penny for the guy,” Maria said. “If we caught that two-till-10 shift we could catch those guys coming home from the steelworks and going to the pub – we made seriously good money as kids.”
Splott and neighbouring Tremorfa were largely rural areas for much of their history. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that urbanisation took hold after the East Moors became home to a number of commercial entities, including the steelworks.
This led to the development of much of the residential areas of Splott that still exist today.
With plenty of families to cater for, vibrant shopping streets thrived in the area. Maria has fond memories of the bustling atmosphere around Carlisle Street and Clifton Street.
“We would come here to Carlisle Street and I can remember the pavements were so busy with mums shopping that as children we would have to step into the gutter to let the mums pass with shopping bags,” she said. “In the afternoon we would take all the shopping home and we would go to Clifton Street.
“Clifton Street was a bit more like town shopping. You had clothes shops and a Boots and a Woolworths – whereas they were all small independent shops on Carlisle Street.”
Maria opened her hair salon business on Carlisle Street in 1990, when the street still had a lot of the shops she remembered as a child. But she said trade began its sharpest decline after the mid 1990s – a result of the shift in people’s shopping habits.
Maria said many people were buoyed by promises the area would benefit as a result of the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay.
“At the time there was a promise that house prices were going to increase and jobs were going to be plentiful,” Maria said. “But they’ve never really connected it well. Property prices have always been healthy but it hasn’t quite delivered on the promise or the dream that was fed to us.”
Maria said Splott has suffered from a reputation as a “rough” area of Cardiff for as long as she can remember. She explained that while other suburbs have managed to shake off their negative perceptions, Splott’s has remained due to it being a largely working class area.
“It is a little bit of snobbishness,” she said. “I can see where that comes from and I can relate to it. Even as a child Splott was still very much a working class area. But wherever you have got working class, middle class or upper class people, you are still going to have undercurrent of people who want something for nothing. That is not specific to Splott.”
I had read about Splott in a newspaper or magazine. It sounded more like where I was from... Lynne Thomas
Singer-songwriter Frank Hennessy spent a lot of his formative musical career frequenting bars and clubs in Splott before becoming famous with his group the Hennessys.
The 71 year old, who still presents his Celtic Heartbeat radio show on BBC Radio Wales, said many people wrongly believe he grew up in Splott.
“People think I’m a Splott boy because I sang about building a little plot in Splott,” he said.
“I grew up in Rumney, but my musical years were in Splott. There was quite a lot of music in Splott and there were some great clubs.
“It just seemed like an interesting place to be. There was always something going on.”
Frank remembers playing and listening to music at St Albans Rugby Club, the Bomb and Dagger, and the Carlylian.
“It had its own sort of pride,” Frank said. “There was a bit of swagger about the place. Splott boys, they thought they knew everything and would punch anyone who thought different. The name itself had a bit of mystery to it. Where did it come from? Splott – it sounds like something a pigeon does.”
Frank said his impression is that change has started to come to Splott.
“Someone said it was becoming gentrified and becoming too pricey for local people,” he said. “It’s just like everywhere else.”
Lynne Thomas has lived in Cardiff since 1996 and moved to Splott in 2007, attracted by the strong community she felt she missed out on while living in the Windsor Quay area of Grangetown.
“It didn’t have that community vibe,” she said. “You never saw your neighbours and it was quite isolated with no pubs or anything.
“I had read about Splott in a newspaper or magazine. It sounded more like where I was from and I just knew. It has exceeded my expectations and I’ve made loads of friends.” Lynne said she eventually decided to become more involved in the community and attended a hyperlocal news journalism course. The result was Lynne’s online hyperlocal news website Inksplott – which shares stories from the area and keeps residents up to date with local events.
It has become a favourite among locals with Lynne regularly pulling in thousands of readers to her website and social media pages.
Lynne says the website has spawned a number of other community projects, including Keep Splott Tidy which she co-founded with a neighbour two years ago. Always on the look out for trendy new places for locals to hang out, Lynne says she’s sure the area will start to attract more independent startups in the next few years.
There’s an increasing amount of community activity, a swimming pool (not many parts of Cardiff can claim that), library and the odd decent deli and grocery.
“There are so many positive people living in Splott that want to set something up,” Lynne said.
“I think it’s only a matter of time before we see more coming up. I think over the next 10 to 15 years we will see more independent businesses start to pop up.”