Cardiff Travel Forum

I grew up in Cardiff and never really knew the reason why Tiger Bay was called Tiger Bay, can you please give the reason behind this name

"Quickly developing a fearsome reputation for its hard-drinking rough house boozers, Tiger Bay is said to have been named after the fast swirling waters in the Bristol Channel which reminded sailors of 'raging tigers'"
(www.urban75.org)

Sounds a bit far fetched but that's the best I can come up with

I searched for the origin of the name and the answer given by 'aaaagh' is what I came up with too.
If you're from Tiger Bay, do you remember 'Two Ton, Tessy O'shea'? A landlady I stayed with years ago used to go to the same dance school as Tessy. When she was young (and she was 80 when I knew her, 30 years ago) the local police would stop her and her friends from going down the Bay if it was dark as it was too dangerous.
There were pubs every other building and prostitutes stood on nearly every street corner.

I've not heard mention of Tessie O'Shea for aeons!

I used to stay in digs with a chap and his wife a few years ago. His wife went to the same dance school as Tesse and they grew up together.