I actually moved down to the bay about seven years ago. Since then the changes have been phenomenal. Before the barrage of course the bay was tidal. In the night on a full moon the whole front room would be like a mirror ball, you could see the boats going out past Flat Holm and Steep Holm.
Now all the terrace houses have been demolished, Bute and Windsor Esplanade are the only original houses left. Techniquest was the first new thing to arrive and then the shed, as it was known, which was Craft in the Bay. It was a terrible time for people living there because the noise and dirt was phenomenal, this huge 15 foot corrugated steel fence went around all the works to keep the noise in but it was ironically the same fences they used to use in Northern Ireland to fence in the prisons and police stations. So it was like living in a war zone. All the light to peoples house on Adelaide Street was shaded out. Nobody in Bute Town received any compensation for any of this. One month you would have a huge building phase finish and move away then a month later more building work would start with huge plant works and heavy lorries. 20 tonne trucks going to the house.
The first day I moved in my friend Justin and I built a pier just outside the house over the wall. People used to come and sit on it to sunbathe and the kids would climb on it.
In front of the house now instead of the sea is an artificial lagoon with red algae floating on it because it is toxic and stinking in the summer. Of course Cardiff Bay development Cooperation went of back to the East of England leaving Cardiff council with a £3 million a year clear up bill for the re- oxygenating of the water. The local people have got nothing. There are now half a million luxury flats opposite some of the poorest housing in Western Europe. The kinds of jobs that have come out of the bay are just minimum wage shop jobs.