1 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:08,080 HE EXHALES 2 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,000 Seriously high now. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:15,080 Oh, that's a wobbly one. 4 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:17,240 40m now, I reckon. 5 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:18,560 I can see the cab above me. 6 00:00:20,480 --> 00:00:21,600 What an office that is. 7 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:26,920 I can see the sea. 8 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,240 'I'm climbing 200 foot to the top of 9 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:31,360 'a huge crane in the centre of Cardiff.' 10 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,880 This is the last 5m, before the very top. 11 00:00:37,880 --> 00:00:40,280 Just got to straddle my way across here. 12 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:41,280 Get past this point. 13 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:44,120 Hello. 14 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:45,760 You all right, mate? 15 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:47,840 Wow. 16 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:50,040 He's just turning it around for a better view, 17 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:52,840 but he warned us to hold on cos it gets a little bit juddery. 18 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:53,760 So I'm holding on! 19 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:59,000 I'm on the building site of the new BBC Wales headquarters 20 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,680 and it's the biggest construction project in the city. 21 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:09,360 This is a perfect example of how this city is constantly evolving. 22 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:12,800 Billions of pounds will soon be spent on redevelopment. 23 00:01:12,800 --> 00:01:15,400 It's one of the UK's fastest-growing cities. 24 00:01:19,320 --> 00:01:22,240 But sometimes I feel that this place is a little bit too quick 25 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:23,720 to forget its past. 26 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:27,280 I want to learn about those little pieces of history that tell me 27 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:30,240 all about how Cardiff became the city that it is today. 28 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:34,880 'My name is Will Millard, 29 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:37,440 'I'm a writer and an explorer. 30 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:40,400 'This place is my home, and I love it.' 31 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:41,640 Great stuff. 32 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:44,680 I'm going in! 33 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,320 'I'm going to explore how Cardiff grew from 34 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:51,720 'a tiny, little town into a modern metropolis.' 35 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:54,440 Ooh, look. 36 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:56,040 This is something else, down here. 37 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:01,240 'I've got unprecedented access to places you never get to see, 38 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:04,200 'and they don't tell the familiar story.' 39 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,640 Oh, my goodness me! Look in this place. 40 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:10,680 It is satanically dark down there. 41 00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:12,720 Pretty, pretty foreboding. 42 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:17,560 'I'll be venturing above, below, inside and all around the city. 43 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:19,200 'It's going to be uncomfortable...' 44 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:21,360 Wow. 45 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:22,320 '..exhilarating... 46 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:25,280 '..and dangerous.' 47 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:28,800 My heart's starting to go now. 48 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,640 'This is the city as you've never seen it before. 49 00:02:31,640 --> 00:02:34,960 'If you think you know Cardiff then think again. 50 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,880 'It might be our last chance to see some of the history that is 51 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,560 'vanishing right in front of us.' 52 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:45,840 I'm walked across jungles on my own in Western Africa, 53 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:49,680 but this is definitely about as scary as it gets for me. 54 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,520 There's not a lot left that predates 55 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:06,120 the Victorian era in Cardiff. 56 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:07,800 But the history goes back beyond 57 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:09,600 the Romans and, for centuries, 58 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:10,800 it wasn't even a city, 59 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:12,440 just a tiny trading town. 60 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:15,720 Hello, Simon, how are you doing? 61 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:17,920 'I've come to meet artist Simon Fenoulhet. 62 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:19,600 'He's fascinated by the city's past, 63 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,720 'and he reckons he's found a truly hidden piece of history 64 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,720 'that's remained undiscovered for hundreds of years.' 65 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:28,280 OK, so why are we here, Simon? 66 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:32,800 We're in the site of the old Blackfriars Friary, 67 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:35,800 in the grounds of Cardiff Castle. 68 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,040 And in the 13th century, there were two friaries - one here and 69 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,520 one the other side of the castle, the Greyfriars. 70 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:44,960 I imagine, back in the 13th century, here, 71 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,000 Cardiff would have looked very different? Completely different. 72 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,360 A very small town, a little over 2,000 people. 73 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:54,280 I'm still a little bit mystified as to why we're exactly here, though? 74 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,360 It's because I want to show you something I've found. 75 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:00,560 A stone tunnel which has been hidden for many, many years. 76 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,640 'I can't reveal where Simon is taking me 77 00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,200 'because it's on private land and it's also unsafe, 78 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,080 'but it's right in the centre of the city.' 79 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:12,920 Simon, this is ridiculous. 80 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:14,400 It's not a very big entrance. 81 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:16,560 Not a very big entrance? How big were these friars? 82 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:18,280 They must have been midgets! 83 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:21,520 Are you telling me that you think that was laid in the 13th century? 84 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:24,080 Yeah. This is the ancient stonework, here, 85 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:26,440 you can see at the top, and the walls inside. 86 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:27,840 And the tunnel goes off 87 00:04:27,840 --> 00:04:31,160 at a very acute angle underneath the ground, over here. 88 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:33,480 Right, I think I'm going to go in first. 89 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:35,720 I'm going to grab a camera off James, 90 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:37,920 so you can see what it's like inside. 91 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,280 Now, come on, Simon, have you got any expert tips for me, 92 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:45,280 apart from turn on the torch and suck your stomach in? 93 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:48,960 It's a wriggle to begin with. Once you're inside, you can crawl. 94 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:51,240 Right, let's turn this on, torches are on. 95 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:52,160 Oh, my goodness me. 96 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:55,000 Right. 97 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:56,960 Right, I'm going for it, guys. 98 00:04:56,960 --> 00:05:00,080 See if I can find the night-vision switch. 99 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:01,320 There we go. Right. 100 00:05:03,280 --> 00:05:05,320 Oh, good grief. 101 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,000 How are you doing? It is tight. 102 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:10,080 Simon, I wish I hadn't had 103 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,280 that extra slice of toast for breakfast, mate! 104 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:15,120 He's in. 105 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:17,600 Wow. 106 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:22,120 Christ, he wasn't lying. 107 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:26,760 Goodness me. 108 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:33,280 I can't believe those monks would have been using this, 109 00:05:33,280 --> 00:05:34,280 walking down it. 110 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:38,800 It's a lot longer than I was expecting as well. 111 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:43,800 These aren't built for the modern man. 112 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:45,680 6' 1" of me is really struggling here. 113 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:49,040 Ah. 114 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:53,120 You can see here, either the roof's fallen in, or the ground's come up. 115 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,760 I think I'm going to see if I can get over it, actually. 116 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:56,800 See if I can get over that. 117 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:02,240 Wow. 118 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:06,200 This is seriously... 119 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:08,520 seriously tight. 120 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:10,080 Over this collapsed mound. 121 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:12,880 PHONE RINGS Oh, no. 122 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:14,240 My phone's going off. 123 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,160 Yeah, all good. All good. 124 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:22,320 I'm just having a look over the mound. 125 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:25,080 My back is pinned against this 126 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:28,440 13th-century stone wall ceiling. 127 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:30,920 HE LAUGHS 128 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:33,200 My hood... My hood's caught on the roof! 129 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:36,640 HE GRUNTS 130 00:06:36,640 --> 00:06:37,960 OK, I'm in. I'm over. 131 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:43,320 That's definitely as far as I can go. 132 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:45,640 It's completely collapsed beyond this mound. 133 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:49,840 Ah, you right behind me, mate? 134 00:06:49,840 --> 00:06:53,680 Honestly, Simon, I don't know what to say. What a discovery. 135 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:56,280 What an incredible, incredible piece of history. 136 00:06:56,280 --> 00:07:00,280 Nothing was built here, since the time of the Greyfriars, 137 00:07:00,280 --> 00:07:02,800 until the 1960s. Right. 138 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,440 So, whatever's here's got to be really old. 139 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:09,040 What on earth was it being used for? 140 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:10,720 Well, that's the big question, isn't it? 141 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:13,680 Lots of people think it could have been some sort of escape tunnel, 142 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:15,760 because it goes directly to the castle from here. 143 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:17,080 It's a nice thought, 144 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:21,000 but I wonder if it's more likely to be something like water supply. 145 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:24,040 Right. But it's nice thought to think it could be an escape route 146 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:27,120 if the castle was under siege, for example. Sure. 147 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:32,040 It's impossible to know have far this tunnel goes past that collapse, 148 00:07:32,040 --> 00:07:34,480 but I can't help but wonder how many more like this 149 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:36,080 might be hidden under Cardiff? 150 00:07:44,680 --> 00:07:47,280 Like Simon said, back in medieval times, 151 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:49,120 Cardiff was just a small town, 152 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:51,320 and it remained like that for hundreds of years, 153 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,120 a rather unremarkable place. 154 00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:58,480 But then, things really began to change, 155 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:01,920 thanks to one super-rich family - the Butes. 156 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,760 For several generations, their extraordinary wealth 157 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,200 completely changed Cardiff's fortunes. 158 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:10,960 In the late 18th century, the first Marquess inherited his earldom, 159 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:13,640 acquiring the castle and a lot of its surrounding land. 160 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:20,280 After the Glamorganshire Canal opened in 1794, Merthyr's 161 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:23,720 coal and iron could be transported much faster to Cardiff's seaport. 162 00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,480 It was the second Marquess of Bute who capitalised on this. 163 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:33,800 Using the family money, in 1839 he constructed a masonry dock 164 00:08:33,800 --> 00:08:37,040 to handle the hugely increased sea trade, 165 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:39,880 and where I'm heading next was part of that development. 166 00:08:43,560 --> 00:08:46,320 The canal here is actually a part of Cardiff that I'd like to think 167 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:47,640 I know quite well. 168 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:50,480 I used to walk along this canal every day, on my way to work. 169 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:53,320 And then, much later, I started fishing it quite a lot as well. 170 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,080 But, really, to be perfectly honest, beyond this stretch, 171 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:57,560 I don't really know were it goes. 172 00:09:00,560 --> 00:09:02,200 So this is about as much as I know. 173 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:04,080 The canal comes around the corner there, 174 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:06,520 it forms something of a moat along the castle wall, 175 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:09,720 and then it gets to this point, and it disappears completely. 176 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,440 And I really have no idea where it goes next. 177 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:16,200 But I'm hoping to meet a man who does. 178 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:18,880 Hey, Will. How are you doing? 179 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:20,720 How are you doing? Callum. Callum Cooper. 180 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:23,680 Fantastic to meet you, Callum. Great, thank you. Cool. 181 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:26,800 Where Callum's taking me is not only restricted from the public 182 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:28,440 but it's also dangerous. 183 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:31,960 Going in! 184 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:34,000 Ooh! 185 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:37,960 God, that smells a bit, doesn't it? 186 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:41,280 I have never seen the city of Cardiff from this view before. 187 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:47,320 It's dark, it's quite cold, and half the city's rubbish 188 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:49,960 has made its way down here, by the looks of things. 189 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:52,400 When I first came to Cardiff, Callum, I think I just made 190 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:55,520 the mistake of assuming this was some sort of naturally occurring 191 00:09:55,520 --> 00:09:57,920 canal that ran into a little bit of a moat around the castle. 192 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:00,520 But, actually, there's much more to it than that, isn't there? 193 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,760 Yeah, I think a lot of people do think that. 194 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:05,840 But it's a necessary part of operating the docks. 195 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:09,680 This canal, dock feeder, takes water from Blackweir, 196 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:12,760 off the River Taff, down to the dock system, 197 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:15,760 and it keeps the docks topped up with water, so it means we 198 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:21,680 always can maintain around 39-40 feet of dock level inside the port, 199 00:10:21,680 --> 00:10:23,240 and that's important for shipping. 200 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:28,960 This canal was built in the 1830s by the Marquess of Bute. 201 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:31,840 By providing the dock with a continuous water supply, 202 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:34,240 it allowed ships to load and unload, 203 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:36,040 even when the tide was out. 204 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:38,080 It gave Cardiff one of the first 205 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:39,720 24-hour working docks, 206 00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:41,080 setting the city on its way 207 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:42,320 to becoming the world's 208 00:10:42,320 --> 00:10:43,560 biggest exporter of coal. 209 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:48,080 It's quite a place, this, isn't it, Callum? It is. 210 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:51,080 You'd never know you're right in the city centre, really. 211 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:52,000 Whoa! 212 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:54,720 I was nearly in, then! 213 00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:58,000 Who built this, Callum? 214 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,720 During the 1830s, mainly Irish immigrants... Really? 215 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:03,080 ..from Southern Ireland. 216 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:05,520 They built the feeder, they built the docks, 217 00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:07,560 and this work put bread on their table. 218 00:11:07,560 --> 00:11:09,920 You can imagine, you're leaving Ireland, probably, what, 219 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:11,800 around the time of the Great Potato Famine, 220 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:13,880 you come in here, you're looking for work, 221 00:11:13,880 --> 00:11:16,880 and this is the job that you get, digging out this place. 222 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:18,720 I mean, it's brutal conditions. 223 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:21,160 It's tough walking down here today, isn't it? Indeed. 224 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:24,200 But, apart from Callum and the crew, nobody knows we're down here. 225 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,280 And this feels very much like a secret part of the city. 226 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:29,560 It looks a bit dark and ominous in there. Do you know much 227 00:11:29,560 --> 00:11:31,200 about what's in that tunnel? 228 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:33,000 My right wader is leaking, 229 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:35,760 I'm going on the surface route and I'll see you on the other side. 230 00:11:35,760 --> 00:11:37,200 All right, sounds good! 231 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:39,040 I guess I'm on my own, then. 232 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:40,880 I don't really know what to expect. 233 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,280 I can tell you now, though, it's actually quite cold in here 234 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:44,960 now I'm in the dark. 235 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:47,800 I'm not going to go in alone. I've got my cameras and I've also 236 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:51,360 got our safety guide, Vasey, who's very kindly agreed to come in. 237 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:52,840 So I'm going to swap helmets now. 238 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:56,680 Get the torch on. Hope for the best, isn't it? 239 00:11:56,680 --> 00:11:58,120 Go for it, see what you find. 240 00:11:58,120 --> 00:11:59,840 All right. I'll see you later, lads. 241 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:09,960 Over 50 million gallons of water run through this canal every day 242 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:13,000 but Callum has temporarily restricted the flow back at 243 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:15,600 Blackweir so we can make our way down. 244 00:12:15,600 --> 00:12:19,000 But we haven't got long before the levels rise again. 245 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:20,280 It's getting deep here. 246 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:23,920 I'm already well above my belly button. 247 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:25,960 And you're thinking about the things 248 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,160 that your legs are brushing up against. 249 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:30,560 Iron rods. Eels. 250 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:33,440 Maybe there's even some bodies down here, somewhere - who knows? 251 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,360 I can hear cars going over my head. 252 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:37,920 This is quite something else. 253 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:42,680 What do you reckon that is, there? Manhole cover? Yeah. 254 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:44,640 Like you say, there'll be people 255 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:47,320 putting their feet on there, walking past. 256 00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:50,120 I can't believe I'm right below the centre of the city. 257 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:59,880 It's an odd mixture of post-war concrete and Victorian construction. 258 00:12:59,880 --> 00:13:00,960 So even down here, 259 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:03,960 you can see how the modern Cardiff has built over its own past. 260 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:09,840 The canal runs for over three miles, 261 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:13,000 much of it hidden under the centre of Cardiff. 262 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,400 It's amazing to think this early 19th-century technology is 263 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:19,600 still secretly playing a vital role in running the docks today. 264 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,280 It's a very dark, low-looking tunnel over here. 265 00:13:26,280 --> 00:13:28,360 That, that looks eerie. 266 00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:32,320 It's amazing, the dull thud of traffic, we've left that behind now. 267 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:33,880 It's gone very quiet. 268 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:35,800 That's one of the city's big pipes. 269 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:39,200 I don't know whether that's water or sewage or whatever that is. 270 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,840 I think, above me now is actually 271 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,200 the main commercial centre of Cardiff. 272 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:48,240 I reckon most people shopping and drinking coffee have no idea 273 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:51,040 that this canal I'm walking down is right under their feet. 274 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:02,520 Big concrete joists, holding the whole world up above my head. 275 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:04,160 Stalactites down here as well. 276 00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:07,760 That's awesome. 277 00:14:11,200 --> 00:14:14,200 I mean, that's accumulated there over years and years and years. 278 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:23,600 We've been walking now for a good 10-15 minutes, 279 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:26,360 and it's not letting up. It's absolutely pitch-black. 280 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:27,840 It's nail-straight, though. 281 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,440 As far as the eye can see, there is no daylight. 282 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:32,920 It is satanically dark down there. 283 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:38,000 So, I think, unless I'm going to commit to walking all the way 284 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,720 to the docks, this is probably the point I should turn back. 285 00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:46,720 My safety expert tells me the water levels are beginning to rise, 286 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:48,960 and the current is getting stronger. 287 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:50,800 It's time to go. 288 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:53,440 You can really, really feel it in the back of your legs, 289 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:54,640 walking against it. 290 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:56,680 I mean, I know on the way back, 291 00:14:56,680 --> 00:14:59,360 how far it is to get back out of here 292 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:00,760 and to get to relative safety 293 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:04,600 but I also know that they'll have opened the gates down at 294 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:08,080 the Blackweir on the Taff now, and this Taff water's coming in. 295 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:10,280 I certainly wouldn't want to be down here in a storm, 296 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:11,960 I can tell you that for sure. 297 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:13,520 Pretty, pretty foreboding. 298 00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:20,200 The key to the entrance where Callum is meeting us 299 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:22,240 has long since disappeared. 300 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,480 No-one's been down here for years. 301 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:27,120 Is that you, Will? 302 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:28,480 Enjoying your journey? 303 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:29,800 Just got a bit carried away. 304 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:34,440 Ah. 305 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:35,640 Out into the sunlight. 306 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:39,200 What an experience. 307 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:40,400 Amazing. 308 00:15:42,200 --> 00:15:45,040 The feeder canal flows for over three miles from Blackweir, 309 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:48,200 in Bute Park, to its final destination at the East Dock. 310 00:15:50,720 --> 00:15:53,600 Today, it's an unassuming lake for local residents. 311 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:55,960 It's hard to believe now, but in the 19th century, 312 00:15:55,960 --> 00:15:58,440 this place was buzzing. 313 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:00,600 We can get an idea of what it must have looked like 314 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:02,960 from this footage from 1930. 315 00:16:06,160 --> 00:16:09,200 The Bute family eventually built four enormous docks, 316 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,680 linked to the valleys' coal seams by a railway network. 317 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:16,120 With nearly nine million tonnes of coal being exported every year, 318 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:19,920 it made Cardiff the coal capital of the world. 319 00:16:19,920 --> 00:16:23,280 And it was the Welsh coal that fuelled the British Empire. 320 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:27,560 The city had become one of Britain's most vital assets, 321 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:30,120 and it needed to be protected. 322 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:31,720 I'm taking a boat to find out 323 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:33,560 how the Victorians did just that. 324 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:37,200 This is it, I'm off. 325 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,360 Heading out of the Cardiff Bay barrage and into the Severn. 326 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:48,520 Flat Holm Island is the southernmost point of Wales. 327 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:50,520 It's also still a part of the city, 328 00:16:50,520 --> 00:16:54,680 and this ancient rock has played a vital role in protecting Cardiff. 329 00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:59,560 Today, you can only visit through a specially organised trip. 330 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:03,840 But back in the Victorian era, 50 soldiers were stationed here. 331 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:06,400 Queen Victoria feared a French invasion 332 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:10,240 and, because of Cardiff's importance to the Empire, in 1866, 333 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:12,920 Flat Holm was chosen as an artillery defence. 334 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:16,040 There's an almighty piece of hardware 335 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:18,240 lying on the grass over here. Look at this. 336 00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:21,720 Look at the size of this cannon! 337 00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:24,880 Goodness knows what that could have been used to take out. 338 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:27,360 It's a piece of formidable defence. 339 00:17:27,360 --> 00:17:31,280 The shells that went into that must have been quite something. 340 00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:33,960 I imagine gave quite a crack as well. 341 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,760 The shells weighed 115lb, 342 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:39,680 but they could still hit a target several miles away. 343 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:45,480 Wow. 344 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:46,840 I'm going to put my torch on. 345 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:52,600 These underground passageways would have been a dangerous place, 346 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,240 with soldiers handling hundreds of live shells. 347 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:58,680 It looks like that would have stored quite a lot of ammunition as well. 348 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,840 There were nine huge cannons housed in separate pits, 349 00:18:06,840 --> 00:18:11,720 but what's most fascinating about these guns is that they disappeared. 350 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,120 Sat on a spring-loaded mounting, when a gun was fired... 351 00:18:17,200 --> 00:18:21,040 ..the recoil would force it into the pit, where it could be reloaded. 352 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:24,600 It made it virtually impossible for enemy ships to spot them. 353 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:25,560 Ingenious. 354 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:30,840 Peter Sampson is the Flat Holm Society chairman. 355 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:33,040 He tells me that, as well as a military defence, 356 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:36,920 this island had another role in protecting Cardiff. 357 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:39,800 It's got an ominous presence about it. It certainly has. 358 00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,800 The only offshore isolation hospital in the UK. 359 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:46,400 You're looking at the cholera hospital. 360 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:48,280 By the mid-19th century in Cardiff, 361 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:51,440 nearly 1,000 people had died from cholera. 362 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:53,560 The disease was rife on the Continent, 363 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,400 and with ships from all over the world docking at the port, 364 00:18:56,400 --> 00:19:00,040 the city couldn't risk further outbreaks. 365 00:19:00,040 --> 00:19:02,040 Flat Holm was Cardiff's first line of defence 366 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:04,080 against the deadly disease. 367 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:07,080 Infected vessels were ordered to dock at this island. 368 00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:09,960 What was cholera actually like? 369 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:11,360 As I understand it, 370 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:14,240 it give you severe vomiting and diarrhoea, and could be deadly. 371 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,120 It's quiet an extreme length to go to, isn't it? 372 00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:18,720 They really must have been terrified. 373 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:21,600 They were so afraid of it, they made sure that Cardiff would be 374 00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:25,440 safe by bringing the infected people here to the island. 375 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:28,280 Goodness me, it's really become quite overgrown, isn't it? 376 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:30,520 Yeah, this would have been a six-bed ward, 377 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:32,520 with doors through there to the nursing station, 378 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:34,160 and the bathrooms, etc. 379 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:36,920 And in here, there would have been six beds for the infected. 380 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:39,480 Was it just cholera on here, or was there ever anything else? 381 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:41,840 One chap was brought over here with bubonic plague. 382 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:44,640 He died and was cremated. 383 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:49,040 But the crematorium was a stone furnace, 384 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:51,200 enclosed in a wooden shed. 385 00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:52,400 And when they cremated him, 386 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:54,320 actually, they set fire to the wooden shed, 387 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:58,400 so the crematorium also burned down at the same time as the cremation. 388 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:00,240 So it was a total cremation. 389 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:01,680 It's not that funny, is it? 390 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:03,840 But that certainly did for him, then, 391 00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,520 if they actually burnt down the crematorium as well as the body. 392 00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:08,120 Yes. Blimey. 393 00:20:08,120 --> 00:20:10,760 It really was used quite a lot to protect the mainland, wasn't it? 394 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:12,760 You have those gun fortifications down here, 395 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:15,400 the cholera hospital here stopping the spread of disease. 396 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:19,000 Well, it was always the main defence against any form of invasion, 397 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:21,320 either by illness or by enemy. 398 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:24,560 So it's a main place of defence against anything which could 399 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:26,600 harm the people of the Channel ports. 400 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:30,920 The hospital became essential. 401 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:35,720 Nearly 900 ships a week were coming to Cardiff to load up with coal. 402 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:39,200 By the time the city opened a third dock in 1874, 403 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:42,640 it was even possible to walk across the docks by stepping from 404 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:44,880 deck to deck of the ships moored within them. 405 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,520 As money poured into the city of Cardiff 406 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:53,560 from the booming coal industry, the population exploded. 407 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:55,200 It was here in Grangetown 408 00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,040 where many of the working class people were housed. 409 00:20:58,040 --> 00:20:59,800 In fact, this area was known 410 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,120 for having some of the poorest of the poor. 411 00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:05,080 There were more paupers living here than anywhere else 412 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:09,160 in the entire city and an 1873 the census put the average number 413 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:13,280 of people living in each cottage as 13. 414 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:15,680 It was very, very different, obviously, for the people 415 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,160 that were managing the money. 416 00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:19,800 For themselves they built huge mansions, 417 00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:23,000 one of which can still be seen today in Llandaff. 418 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:29,560 This place was built in 1856 by the Insole family. 419 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:31,960 They owned the Cymmer Colliery in the Rhondda Valley 420 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,400 and it made them extremely wealthy. 421 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:36,160 For nearly half a century, 422 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,800 these mine owners and coal shippers spent phenomenal sums of money 423 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:42,400 lavishly improving and redeveloping their mansion. 424 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:46,600 Most of it has been derelict for nearly three decades 425 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:49,080 and it's currently closed to the public, 426 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:53,400 but Gray Hill and Elaine Davey from the Insole Court Trust are going to 427 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,760 show me how Cardiff's Victorian elite used to live. 428 00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:00,760 Well, welcome to Insole Court. Follow me. This is a beautiful room. 429 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:03,000 Oh, wow, look at this. 430 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:04,680 That is something else, isn't it? 431 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,280 That is amazing, look at that painting. 432 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,360 It looks so medieval, doesn't it? 433 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:12,200 Well, that's Gothic revival fashion at the time. 434 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,840 Goodness me, so the Insole family would have sat in this room 435 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:17,720 with a cigar and some brandy, was it? That's right, yes. 436 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,480 This was eventually used as the smoking room, 437 00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,280 as the gentlemen's smoking room. 438 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:25,400 So only men allowed, was it? I would imagine so. 439 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:29,200 The evidence of all the smoking is in the lovely Penarth alabaster, 440 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:31,480 because this pink is quite stained now. 441 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:33,640 If you think of it compared to the... 442 00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:35,640 Oh, no way, yeah. ..alabaster in the hall... 443 00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:38,160 I see what you mean, Elaine. At the top here. Look at this. 444 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:40,040 Actually, you can see, can't you, 445 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:42,920 that it's much paler down the bottom here and then, 446 00:22:42,920 --> 00:22:46,120 as the smoke's gone up, it's turned it that nicotine brown? 447 00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:48,920 It's like being in one of those sort of old school pubs, isn't it, 448 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,200 where you can still see the ceilings are covered in tar and nicotine? 449 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,280 'The conditions down the Insoles' mines were tough and dangerous. 450 00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:00,520 'It was extremely physical work 451 00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:03,640 'with a real risk of flooding and explosions. 452 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:07,000 'Children as young as ten were labouring incredibly long hours 453 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:08,880 'for a pittance. 454 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,760 'Meanwhile, the huge fortunes made from their hard work 455 00:23:12,760 --> 00:23:15,480 'allowed the family to live in absolute luxury.' 456 00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:19,640 Wow! 457 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:21,480 My goodness me. 458 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:25,960 That ceiling, there's something almost spiritually moving 459 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:28,080 about something like that, isn't there? 460 00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:30,160 You almost imagine it in the Vatican City. 461 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:31,640 It's quite church-like, isn't it? 462 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:33,880 "The wealth of the mind is the only true wealth", 463 00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:36,880 and "the fount of wisdom flows through books." Oh, yes. 464 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:38,720 You can see what a reading place, 465 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:40,800 what a place for books this would have been. 466 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:44,440 I find it quite hard to buy into "the wealth of the mind is 467 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:48,080 "the only true wealth" whilst looking up at a ceiling 468 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,120 that presumably would have cost tens of thousands of pounds 469 00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:54,360 in today's money to make. Absolutely. 470 00:23:54,360 --> 00:23:57,960 'I'm imagining what this place would have looked like in its glory days, 471 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:02,400 'full of exquisite furniture and all the trappings of the high life. 472 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:05,960 'Every aspect of design seems to have been the very best, 473 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:09,080 'the most exclusive, the most expensive, 474 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,520 'right down to the tiniest detail.' 475 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:13,440 Rabbits, ducks. 476 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:15,520 'Including the wallpaper, 477 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,520 'which was created by designers to the super rich.' 478 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:22,200 Oh, my goodness me. 479 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:24,640 I was expecting you to open this door to a little room, 480 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,320 not another staircase. And another set of rooms. 481 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:28,880 Just goes on and on, doesn't it? 482 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,320 This is pretty amazing because this was the cold store. Oh. 483 00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:39,520 But you've still got that wallpaper. Oh, yeah. 484 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,280 Even in the cold store. 485 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:45,120 Even in the cold store, they've got the exclusive wallpaper print. 486 00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:46,960 That says it all, doesn't it? 487 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,320 I mean, talk about Gothic revivalism. 488 00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,320 It doesn't get more Gothic than a staircase winding round 489 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,120 up into a castle turret, does it? 490 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:05,280 'The Insoles lived here for three generations and each dynasty 491 00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:07,320 'put their own stamp on the house, 492 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:11,160 'bolting on extra features on top of this mishmash of a building.' 493 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,400 This is absolutely spectacular, isn't it? 494 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:15,920 What a spot they've picked for their place. 495 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,560 Well, they can watch their ships going out with all the coal, 496 00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:20,680 bringing all the money to the family. 497 00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:22,760 There's something about it, though, isn't there? 498 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:24,560 I mean, you imagine they're kind of up here, 499 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,560 drinking their brandy, smoking their cigars, 500 00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:28,440 they can look out that way to watch the coal... 501 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,040 Looking over their estate. But do you think there's something 502 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,080 a little bit gross about it as well, you know, 503 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,240 given the kind of conditions in the mines during that period? 504 00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,360 The great irony of Insole Court is that the same year it was built, 505 00:25:39,360 --> 00:25:42,920 160 years ago, there was the largest industrial accident 506 00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:44,760 in South Wales at the time. 507 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:50,000 114 men and boys lost their lives at the Insoles' colliery in Cymmer, 508 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:55,640 and although the Insoles themselves and the management of their mines 509 00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:59,720 were acquitted of any wrongdoing, certainly there is some evidence 510 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,640 that as the mine owners they ignored health and safety warnings. 511 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,200 So presumably there was no compensation paid to anyone. 512 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:10,160 That's right, the miners' families were paid no compensation. 513 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:14,640 This is a fabulous, ornate piece of design and architecture 514 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,080 and opulence, but it was very much, 515 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,800 like all of South Wales' great houses, 516 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,840 built on the blood, sweat and tears of many thousands of people. 517 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:29,680 Despite the intriguing architecture and historical importance of 518 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:33,840 this mansion, until recently it was at risk from demolition. 519 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:36,480 It's only thanks to a hard-fought campaign 520 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,280 by some passionate supporters that it was saved. 521 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,920 Going around Insole Court today really has brought home to me, 522 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,440 you know, actually just how little we have left in Cardiff, 523 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,680 in the city itself, of that industrial coal era. 524 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:55,160 There were thousands of mansions just like this in this area 525 00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:58,200 and this is one of the very few that's still standing today. 526 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:01,080 And it's something that's being forgotten and that's why 527 00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,000 it's so, so important that the heritage of this place 528 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,920 continues to carry on, because without it, 529 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:08,320 all of that is gone. 530 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,360 Insole Court demonstrates the extent to which 531 00:27:14,360 --> 00:27:17,480 the Victorian era brought money and development to Cardiff. 532 00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,880 By the 1870s, the coal industry had expanded Cardiff's population 533 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,320 to nearly 60,000, and with that came the demands of modernisation. 534 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:34,960 Gas lighting first arrived in 1821, but towards the end of the century 535 00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,960 it was being used to generate heating and electricity. 536 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:39,440 As the population increased, 537 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:42,480 that meant more and more gas had to be produced and then stored. 538 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,560 Locked away on wasteland in the Grangetown area is one of 539 00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,400 the few remaining connections to that history. 540 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:54,520 It's in plain sight for all to see, but like me, I bet most people 541 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:58,160 have little idea what it was used for, let alone how old it is. 542 00:27:59,960 --> 00:28:02,440 The current owners have agreed to unlock the gates 543 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:04,000 and let me take a closer look. 544 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:08,760 This is the gas holder built for gas storage on the old 545 00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:11,280 Grangetown gasworks site. Right, OK. 546 00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:13,720 When was it built? It was built in 1881. 547 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:15,400 It's an amazing-looking structure. 548 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:16,840 And, Ray, you can actually remember 549 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:18,800 when this was in use, can't you? Yes, indeed. 550 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,120 I remember once bringing down my grandfather's lunch 551 00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:24,120 when he was working a long shift, 552 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:26,960 crawling through all of the hot areas, you know, 553 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,640 over pools of smoking tar... WILL LAUGHS 554 00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,080 ..dodging steam engines. It was very good. 555 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:35,680 Health and safety was top of the list. 556 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,640 Pretty lax in those days, by the sounds of things! 557 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,400 It's really quite impressive, once you've stood in the middle, 558 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:44,440 isn't it? Yeah, it is, it's like a big theatre, isn't it? 559 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,440 It feels a lot bigger from in here, actually, 560 00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:48,720 than it does from outside, doesn't it? Exactly, yeah. 561 00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,920 It's almost got that kind of stadium or coliseum feel to it, actually. 562 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,040 The Victorians loved being ornate in everything they did. 563 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,000 For something so functional, 564 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:06,800 this holder features 16 cast-iron Doric columns with cornices 565 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:10,200 in the manner of 15th-century Florentine architecture. 566 00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:13,480 That's not just me saying that, 567 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:15,680 this structure has been officially listed. 568 00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:20,200 There's something about a lot of these industrial sites 569 00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:24,240 that I've been seeing, there's that Victorian flourish, almost. 570 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,520 Why did they go to such effort in what is actually just a gas holder? 571 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,120 Confidence and pride. The Victorians were very confident. 572 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:38,160 The gasworks on this site burned nearly 400 tonnes of coal a day 573 00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,440 to produce gas that would be stored in one of six holders. 574 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:46,400 These containers consisted of vessels that sat inside 575 00:29:46,400 --> 00:29:49,880 the outer metal framework and they would rise and fall on tracks 576 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:51,880 that run up and down the side of the walls. 577 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:57,040 As the gas was pumped into the holder, the vessel would rise. 578 00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,760 When the gas was being used, the chamber would fall. 579 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:05,920 Living next door to these gasworks must have been pretty intense. 580 00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,960 It was an inferno of activity, and the local residents 581 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:11,920 even complained to Parliament in London about the smell. 582 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,280 So when I sit back at home with my gas hob and I can smell that gas 583 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,920 before I spark it, would this place have really stank as well? 584 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,960 So the smell that you smell in gas today is because of an odorant 585 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,200 that we added to it in the network, 586 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,320 but in those days the gas had a particular town gas smell to it 587 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:33,720 because of the other constituents of the gas. 588 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:37,560 You'd have tarry smells, you'd have hydrogen sulphide smells, 589 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,640 that bad egg smell as well. 590 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:43,080 I heard that local women sometimes would bring their children 591 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:46,320 down here to actually smell the gas on the site because 592 00:30:46,320 --> 00:30:50,160 they believed it had some sort of restorative property. Is that true? 593 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:54,240 It has been recorded that doctors would send their mothers down 594 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,320 with children if they had a whooping cough or any other kind of 595 00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,920 breathing or chest ailment to come and breathe in some of the smells 596 00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:03,360 from the waste products. No way. 597 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,440 And it sometimes used to make them sick and it actually seemed 598 00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,720 to work quite well, but it's certainly not something 599 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:10,840 that GPs would advise doing these days. 600 00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:13,000 WILL LAUGHS Not on the NHS. 601 00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:21,080 By the end of the 19th century, Cardiff was networked for gas. 602 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,720 The city streets and buildings could be lit 24/7. 603 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:29,560 The result - literacy went up, crime rates went down. 604 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:31,640 Thanks to the Victorian ingenuity, 605 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,840 Cardiff was dragged from the Dark Ages into the modern era. 606 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:43,200 By the end of the 1800s, 607 00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:47,320 20% of all the world's coal exports came from this city. 608 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:51,120 The place was thriving back then, 609 00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:55,000 but a lot of the coal wealth was controlled by the Bute family. 610 00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,240 There were attempts to break that monopoly. 611 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,920 I've come to meet railway historian John Buxton, and he's got the keys 612 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:07,280 to a hidden construction that can help tell that story. 613 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,680 It's private land, but he's called in some favours to gain us access. 614 00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:13,440 So, here we are at the tunnel. Yeah. 615 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:17,920 And as you can see, it's quite a structure. It looks great. Yeah. 616 00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:21,600 We have to go into the tunnel wearing safety helmets, though. 617 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,040 OK, I see, no worries. So here's yours. Fantastic. 618 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,440 Great, shall we go and have a look? Let's go have a look. 619 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:29,720 So this is the Wenvoe Tunnel, is it? Yes. 620 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:31,760 It's almost like an optical illusion, isn't it? 621 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,400 It just seems so long and dark and there's that tiny little spot 622 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:36,000 of light right at the back there. 623 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,600 Yes, just over a mile long, and it was built in 1888. 624 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,720 It was a testament to the engineering and the scale of 625 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:45,320 the coal industry in the late Victorian period. 626 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,800 Right, that's why I understand this is something that's 627 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:51,040 critically important to the Victorian coal industry in Cardiff. 628 00:32:51,040 --> 00:32:53,720 Oh, yes, this line was a key artery from the coalfields 629 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:56,320 to the dock at Barry. Cool. Let's try and crack her open then. 630 00:32:56,320 --> 00:32:58,920 Let's try and get it open, yes. It might be a bit stiff. 631 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:05,920 There we are. Great stuff. Not as bad as I thought. 632 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:15,640 In a classic tale of a self-made man, this tunnel was built by 633 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:18,840 the engineer and colliery owner David Davies. 634 00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:21,880 Originally a farmer, he became Wales's first millionaire 635 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:23,720 during the late Victorian era. 636 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:31,120 Fed up with the Butes' stranglehold on the South Wales coal industry, 637 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,280 Davies was the driving force in getting the neighbouring town 638 00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:37,160 of Barry its own railway and dock system, 639 00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:39,440 therefore bypassing Cardiff altogether. 640 00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,240 This tunnel was a key link in transporting the coal from 641 00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,320 Davies' mines to Barry. 642 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:51,560 It took 3,000 men to build it and the fact he was willing to fund such 643 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:55,600 a huge engineering project shows how much profit there was to be made. 644 00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:00,440 And Davies was right. 645 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,160 By 1901, Barry had overtaken Cardiff 646 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,760 as the world's leading coal exporter. 647 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,560 It looks like a lot of work has gone into constructing this tunnel, John. 648 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:12,880 Yes, it was a massive effort by hundreds of men. 649 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:17,840 Basically, it was built with manpower, horsepower and dynamite. 650 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:21,440 What would the conditions have been like down here? Very arduous. 651 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,520 It's a very wet tunnel, as you can see, quite cold, 652 00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:26,200 quite dangerous, obviously, 653 00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:28,720 with dynamite and horses and men moving rocks. 654 00:34:28,720 --> 00:34:30,240 Quite a dangerous job. 655 00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:31,800 And you can see here in the brickwork, 656 00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:34,640 it's a really seriously impressive construction. 657 00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,320 A lot of manpower, but also it's very well built, isn't it? 658 00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:40,720 Yeah, it's very well engineered. The Barry Railway, who built this, 659 00:34:40,720 --> 00:34:43,440 had a reputation for building very good structures 660 00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:44,960 and this is no exception. 661 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,800 'The tunnel's only function today is to house a water mains pipe 662 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:52,240 'that's used to supply Barry. 663 00:34:53,720 --> 00:34:55,960 'Water's a big feature down here anyway - 664 00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:58,320 'the tunnel can flood up to four feet deep 665 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,440 'and water is constantly pouring through the brickwork.' 666 00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:10,560 Goodness me. I reckon this should be all right to drink, shouldn't it? 667 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:12,080 It should be filtered. 668 00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:16,400 I'll tell you what, John, that's really nice. 669 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:18,680 We could bottle that and go into business, mate. 670 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:23,560 This must be the ventilation shaft we're coming up to. 671 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:25,000 Yeah, just coming up to it now. 672 00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,040 We're about halfway through the tunnel. 673 00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:29,640 But that's a lovely pool of light, isn't it? It is, yes. 674 00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:33,840 You can see the sky. Ah, here we go. 675 00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:36,080 This is a really impressive-looking structure. 676 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,840 What do you reckon, 40 metres? At least, I would think, yeah. 677 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:42,240 That's incredible. That's a really, really cool hole. 678 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:46,280 Why did they need a ventilation shaft, though? 679 00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:47,960 You need a ventilation shaft, 680 00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:50,520 or it's ideal to have a ventilation shaft in tunnels 681 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:53,360 when you're operating steam locomotives because you need to 682 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:56,480 disperse the smoke and the steam from the tunnels as quickly 683 00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:58,440 as possible, and this helps do that. 684 00:35:58,440 --> 00:36:01,200 Right, so would people have been able to stand above ground 685 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:03,120 and literally see billows of steam? 686 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,440 Oh, yes, yeah. Wow. Certainly, yeah. 687 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,400 Just trying to get my bearings, actually. What's up there? 688 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,680 Well, we're right underneath Culverhouse Cross now, 689 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,960 the shopping centre. We never are. We are, yeah. You're joking. 690 00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,640 Do you want to pop in and get something? WILL LAUGHS 691 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:18,680 You would think that you wouldn't be able to miss 692 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:20,480 a massive chasm like that, 693 00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:23,520 but all of the times I've been to Culverhouse Cross and driven around 694 00:36:23,520 --> 00:36:27,000 and just had absolutely no idea that this huge shaft 695 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,520 and then massive tunnel was hidden down here. 696 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,200 Yes, well, it is capped over and it's not easy to find. 697 00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:36,480 Are there many other stories for this tunnel? 698 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,840 Well, interestingly, yes. 699 00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:43,320 The royal family, when they visited South Wales in the royal train, 700 00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:45,600 often were stabled in Wenvoe station. 701 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:47,680 But during the Second World War, 702 00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:50,800 obviously there were air raids on and the Great Western Railway 703 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,280 management were very concerned about the safety of the royal family. 704 00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:57,040 Sure. So instead of stabling it in the station, 705 00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:00,080 they gradually brought it into the tunnel. You're kidding. 706 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:02,040 And the royal family stayed overnight 707 00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,320 in the train in the tunnel. 708 00:37:03,320 --> 00:37:05,160 I can't believe it. 709 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:07,600 So you mean to tell me that the royal family would have 710 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:09,880 sat in here in their train, eating their dinner, 711 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:11,920 maybe having a gin and tonic, 712 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:15,080 staring at these walls to avoid bombing? 713 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:17,920 It's the safest place to be in an air raid, a tunnel. That's amazing. 714 00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:19,360 Not very royal, though, is it? 715 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:27,080 'The last time this tunnel saw a train was in 1963. 716 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:30,120 'It's been closed ever since a fire in a signal box, 717 00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:33,080 'but this forgotten relic from the Victorian era 718 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:36,640 'is still one of the longest tunnels in South Wales.' 719 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,440 It strikes me as a bit of a pity, to be honest, John. 720 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:41,920 I mean, it's such an incredible structure and it's still in 721 00:37:41,920 --> 00:37:43,920 such fantastic condition. 722 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,440 Do you think there's ever any chance of life after death 723 00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:47,800 for a place like this? 724 00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,640 Some tunnels like this have been refurbished and used as 725 00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:54,920 cycleways and walkways, so there is a possibility that it could be 726 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:57,560 used for that in the future. That would be awesome, wouldn't it? 727 00:37:57,560 --> 00:37:59,480 I'll tell you what, though, going to need to do 728 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:01,640 a bit of cleaning up in here first, aren't they? 729 00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:04,680 You won't get very far on a bicycle through all of this mud, but... 730 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:06,920 No, there's an awful lot of work to do. 731 00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:10,520 But the structure's here, so who knows what may happen in the future? 732 00:38:12,720 --> 00:38:16,240 Back in the city centre, it's pretty difficult to find any clues 733 00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:19,360 to Cardiff's past before the 19th century. 734 00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:21,560 But I'm told they are there. 735 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:24,800 Peter Finch is a Cardiff born and bred historian. 736 00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:27,840 I'm meeting him at the site of the old medieval castle that 737 00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,240 the Marquess of Bute turned into a Victorian Gothic mansion. 738 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,360 Peter tells me that a stone's throw from here 739 00:38:36,360 --> 00:38:39,600 is a glimpse into life that dates back nearly 2,000 years. 740 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,480 And you can see that we're going down slowly as Womanby Street 741 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,000 bends into Quay Street in front of us, 742 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:51,600 which itself goes down further to Westgate Street, 743 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:54,760 which is where the Taff flowed, amazingly. 744 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:57,080 OK, so literally here... 745 00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:59,120 Literally here, where the cars are going now, 746 00:38:59,120 --> 00:39:03,200 was the River Taff, and the clue is in the name Quay Street. 747 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:06,640 Why is it called Quay Street? Because there was a quay here. 748 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:10,720 Way before we had docks, way before we had a canal, 749 00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:15,800 there was a town quay here in which wooden ships would tie up, 750 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:20,040 coming up the tidal Taff to tie up just here. 751 00:39:20,040 --> 00:39:23,320 'A stone quay was built here around 800 years ago, 752 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:27,960 'replacing a trading post which had existed since Roman times. 753 00:39:27,960 --> 00:39:31,000 'But in the 1840s, that quay became redundant. 754 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:33,880 'The celebrated engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel 755 00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:37,520 'diverted the river so that he could complete the construction 756 00:39:37,520 --> 00:39:39,160 'of the South Wales Railway.' 757 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:43,480 It must have been an enormous amount of work, to drain this and move it 758 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:46,880 and to stick the River Taff over there. I mean, why did they bother? 759 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,880 Rivers are dangerous things, particularly the Taff. 760 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:53,160 Just down there was where St Mary's Church stood 761 00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,960 until the floods took its walls away, 762 00:39:55,960 --> 00:40:00,160 washed away its graveyard and took the bones out to sea. 763 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:03,520 And what Brunel wanted to do was to build a railway station in 764 00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:06,840 the middle of this bogland, and the only way he could do it, 765 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:12,240 he, as the great engineer he was, worked out, was to move the river. 766 00:40:12,240 --> 00:40:15,680 Moving the river not only affected the geography of the city, 767 00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,480 but it also enabled the railways to transport much more 768 00:40:18,480 --> 00:40:20,560 coal down to the docks. 769 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,040 In just 20 years, Cardiff went from shifting 100,000 tonnes a year 770 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:26,960 via the canal to 2 million tonnes by train. 771 00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,160 Come on, now, Peter, you know Cardiff inside out. 772 00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:33,880 If there was one secret spot that you were going to take me to 773 00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:37,680 that was going to absolutely blow my mind, where would it be? 774 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,160 For a burger. A burger? 775 00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:42,800 'Every week, thousands of customers come through the 776 00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:47,360 'doors of this fast food restaurant, but upstairs there is a locked door 777 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:51,640 'that's sealed away an extraordinary piece of Cardiff's past. 778 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,840 'It's now a Grade II listed room, but it's closed to the public for 779 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:56,920 'reasons of health and safety. 780 00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:59,560 'We're very fortunate they're allowing TV cameras in here 781 00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:04,440 'for the first - and what they say is the last - time.' 782 00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:07,080 Goodness me. Where are you taking me now, Peter? 783 00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:12,480 We'll go through the "staff only", and beyond here. 784 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:14,400 Oh, my goodness me. 785 00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:18,240 We find ourselves in the Mahogany Room. Look at this place. 786 00:41:18,240 --> 00:41:20,720 This is extraordinary. 787 00:41:20,720 --> 00:41:23,360 I would never have believed that there was going to be 788 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:25,920 a place like this above a burger restaurant. 789 00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:28,840 I've never seen anything like it. 790 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:31,440 Of course, it wasn't always a burger restaurant. 791 00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:35,840 If we go back about 300 years or so, this was a pub... Was it now? 792 00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:37,160 ..called the Green Dragon. 793 00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:40,000 You can see it reflected in the stained glass up there... Oh, yeah. 794 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,640 ..where, you see, a lot of important people who used to come here, 795 00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:46,280 the ship-owners, the councillors, the industrialists of Cardiff, 796 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:50,360 and important decisions were made in here over a drink 797 00:41:50,360 --> 00:41:53,240 before they were really made in the city hall. 798 00:41:53,240 --> 00:41:55,600 Beneath these flickering gas lamps, 799 00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:58,800 surrounded by this lavish stained glass... 800 00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:02,320 Extremely English, I think. The English flag is up there. 801 00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,360 We can see there's a Dutch windmill above my head over here. 802 00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:08,040 Where's that? Oh, up at the top there? Yeah. That's right. 803 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:12,680 And I can't see anything significantly Welsh about this. No. 804 00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:14,080 But this was a long time ago, 805 00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,480 and Cardiff didn't need to state its Welshness. 806 00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:17,760 It was, I suppose... 807 00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:21,240 It had just been made a city, and it didn't care - not then. 808 00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:23,400 This has to be one of the most unbelievable rooms 809 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:24,680 I think I've ever been in. 810 00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:26,320 I cannot get my head around the fact that 811 00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:27,920 we're just above a burger restaurant. 812 00:42:27,920 --> 00:42:30,360 When you look at these, sort of, intricacies with the animals 813 00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:33,720 in the alabaster, and all of these incredible wood carvings, 814 00:42:33,720 --> 00:42:36,600 and the stained glass, but then you, kind of, come to this window here, 815 00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:39,080 you look outside, and I think about the amount of times... 816 00:42:39,080 --> 00:42:41,960 I mean, hundreds of times I've walked down that street, 817 00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:45,080 and never once would I have guessed that there was this place. 818 00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:49,040 We don't do the past in Cardiff is what I've learnt. 819 00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:51,120 There are a couple of little bits that hang on, 820 00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:53,240 like the castle and St John's Church, 821 00:42:53,240 --> 00:42:56,720 but virtually everything else gets wiped, as soon as possible. 822 00:42:56,720 --> 00:42:57,960 "Let's get rid of it." 823 00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:01,160 Nothing looks anything like that which it did, 824 00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:04,280 and then you come in and you come upstairs in a place like this, 825 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,680 and, whoa, there it is - the past once again - 826 00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:10,000 and this, magnificently, is one of them. 827 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:16,880 'Walking through the centre today, 828 00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:20,440 'the modern shop fronts have hidden a lot of the history we have 829 00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:24,920 'still got left, but you only have to look up to see the past. 830 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:27,360 'Peter's now taking me to Hodge House, 831 00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:30,880 'to access the roof, where only the engineers go these days. 832 00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:35,320 'It's a real monster that was built in 1915 by shop owners, 833 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:37,600 'the Co-operative Wholesale Society. 834 00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:40,600 'It was an expression of Welsh wealth, opened at the height 835 00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:42,440 'of Cardiff's coal industry.' 836 00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:48,400 And it's styled loosely on the shops in Regent Street in London, 837 00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:52,440 although maybe not quite convincingly. 838 00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,720 'Six giant floors up, and there's still further to go to 839 00:43:55,720 --> 00:43:57,240 'take us back into the past.' 840 00:43:57,240 --> 00:43:58,920 Well... Great. 841 00:43:58,920 --> 00:44:01,200 I'll tell you, this really is one of those buildings that, 842 00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:02,960 when I'm walking down St Mary's Street, 843 00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,000 I just walk straight past without even noticing, 844 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:09,480 but luckily I've got keys and permission to go up here. Terrific. 845 00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:12,120 If you're up for it, Peter? Yeah, we'll have a go and give it a go. 846 00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:13,800 Oh, yeah, let's have a look. 847 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:16,360 It's pretty steep. 848 00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:17,400 Vertical, even. 849 00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:18,720 After you. 850 00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:23,880 I'll catch you. Don't worry. 851 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:28,440 'Its crowning glory is a four-faced clock tower, 852 00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:30,800 'and it's easy to miss from street level.' 853 00:44:30,800 --> 00:44:32,280 'The clock no longer works, 854 00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,000 'and up in this tower it's like time has frozen.' 855 00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:39,160 Wow. This place is awesome. 856 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:41,760 Check this out. This is full of surprises. 857 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:43,800 This is great, isn't it? 858 00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:46,640 Quite... We're right behind the clock face, right? 859 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,160 Oh, look at! Do you know what? That's pretty smooth. 860 00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:52,320 I reckon something's still moving here... Oh. METAL GRINDING 861 00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:54,360 I think we'll call it a day, there, Peter, actually. 862 00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:56,840 Should do. We should do. 863 00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:59,200 Inexperienced men that we are... Inexperienced men. 864 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:00,440 That's awesome, isn't it? 865 00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:03,440 Oh, a bit of a squeeze. 866 00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:07,560 'This bell was cast in 1915, 867 00:45:07,560 --> 00:45:09,360 'but, like the clock downstairs, 868 00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:11,640 'it hasn't functioned in decades.' 869 00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:15,920 How do you think Cardiff was viewed by the rest of the world back then? 870 00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:18,760 Well, back then, at the height of the coal trade, 871 00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,000 Cardiff was known throughout the world. 872 00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:24,160 It was a very famous place that appeared in the plays 873 00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:26,240 and the novels that Americans were writing. 874 00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:28,400 Everybody had heard of Cardiff. 875 00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:29,920 We've declined since then. 876 00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,160 The First World War was good for Cardiff's trade. 877 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:36,200 The coal was exported to fund the war, to fuel the ships, 878 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:37,760 to fuel the trains, 879 00:45:37,760 --> 00:45:41,480 but, after that, the period of the Depression in the '20s, 880 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:43,120 and Cardiff never recovered. 881 00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:45,680 The world moved on from coal. 882 00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:47,400 So, do you think, then, that it was, sort of, 883 00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:49,920 the case that all of Cardiff's eggs were in one basket, and when 884 00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,640 coal started to decline, they found themselves in a lot of trouble? 885 00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:54,280 Yeah, Cardiff, the one-trick pony. 886 00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:56,320 Well, two-trick pony, really, 887 00:45:56,320 --> 00:45:59,680 if you count the steel that was exported from here. 888 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:03,440 The decline was steady until you got to the 1960s, 889 00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,120 and by the 1960s we were exporting nothing. 890 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:07,480 The trade had ceased. 891 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:13,160 Although Cardiff became the capital of Wales in 1955, 892 00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:16,560 it struggled to find its feet in the post-war climate, 893 00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:20,880 but it did find a new, secret role as part of the UK's defence 894 00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,000 against a terrifying global threat. 895 00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:30,880 After World War II, the prospect of a nuclear war between the USSR 896 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:33,720 and the western Allies was very real. 897 00:46:33,720 --> 00:46:37,080 Our Government became increasingly worried an atomic bomb could 898 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,800 be dropped on Britain from enemy aircraft. 899 00:46:41,600 --> 00:46:42,840 'For the first time ever, 900 00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:45,680 'we've been given access to film a building that was 901 00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:49,760 'a small part of Cardiff's secret Cold War defence plan, 902 00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:53,600 'hidden on a housing estate in the suburb of Llandaff.' 903 00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:55,600 I'm hoping to find somebody here, though, 904 00:46:55,600 --> 00:46:57,680 who's a bit of a Cold War expert. 905 00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:00,760 Hopefully he knows where the door is. Ah, Jon. 906 00:47:00,760 --> 00:47:03,160 Hi. How are you doing? Great to meet you. Good, thanks. 907 00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:05,600 So what is this place, Jon? It looks like a prison. 908 00:47:05,600 --> 00:47:08,880 Yeah, well, this is a sub control bunker, built in the early '50s, 909 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:10,880 in case of nuclear war. 910 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:12,600 Good grief. So shall we have a look around? 911 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,160 Yeah, do you think we're all right? Yeah, yeah, we... 912 00:47:15,160 --> 00:47:17,440 We should put our head torches on. Yeah, I brought two. 913 00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:18,840 Right, here we go, then, Jon. 914 00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:21,200 I'm guessing these lights switches don't work any more. 915 00:47:21,200 --> 00:47:22,480 No, there's no power in here. 916 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,880 Good grief, there's a lot of stuff on the floor as well. Yeah. 917 00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:28,120 It's covered in glass, mate. Watch your step. All sorts in here. 918 00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:31,600 Blimey, look at this! Yeah. So what was this place used for? 919 00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:34,320 Well, this was a communications sub control bunker. 920 00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:35,880 If there was a nuclear war, 921 00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:39,240 it would have become one of the centres of Government. 922 00:47:39,240 --> 00:47:42,000 And I'm guessing these places, in terms of the general public, 923 00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:43,400 this really was a secret, isn't it? 924 00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:45,640 It's like something out of science fiction, really. 925 00:47:45,640 --> 00:47:48,560 The Government didn't think it was necessary to tell people about these 926 00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:51,520 locations because, in the end, it was just about running the country. 927 00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:54,160 Right. So they didn't really care about protecting the public. 928 00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:56,520 So people like you and I, Jon, we would have been toast, 929 00:47:56,520 --> 00:47:58,000 let's be honest. I think so. Yeah. 930 00:47:59,960 --> 00:48:02,400 So how long would they have run a place like this for? 931 00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,720 Life would have got very difficult here within days and weeks. 932 00:48:05,720 --> 00:48:07,360 Yeah, it sounds about right. So, yeah... 933 00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:09,360 I mean, I haven't seen a toilet yet, Jon. Yeah. 934 00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:12,000 And, you know, the, sort of, psychological side of it as well 935 00:48:12,000 --> 00:48:14,440 would have been tough for everyone. 936 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:17,560 Wow. Do you reckon it still works? I'm going to pull the chain. 937 00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:22,560 'But there are toilets, a kitchen and bunk beds. 938 00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:25,760 'For the civil defence personnel lucky enough to be sent here 939 00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:29,880 'in a nuclear attack, the plan was to stay as long as possible.' 940 00:48:29,880 --> 00:48:32,960 'The bunker was designed to be self-sufficient, presumably 941 00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:36,400 'while the rest of the city melted from radiation poisoning. 942 00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:38,840 'It was even equipped with its own generator.' 943 00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:41,880 Can you imagine being stuck in this room next to a diesel generator? 944 00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,320 Yeah, it'd be pretty smelly, and pretty loud as well. 945 00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:45,960 Oh, look at this. What's this here, now? 946 00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:47,920 That's a radiation dosimeter by the look of it. 947 00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:49,800 In the event of some sort of nuclear attack, 948 00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:53,560 this would be used to test levels of radiation after a nuclear blast. 949 00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:55,640 Right. So I think this is really unusual, actually, 950 00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:56,920 to find in a bunker. 951 00:48:56,920 --> 00:48:58,400 It's brand-new. Still looks pretty new. 952 00:48:58,400 --> 00:48:59,960 That's absolutely spotless. Yeah. 953 00:48:59,960 --> 00:49:01,200 And lots of bunkers... 954 00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:04,640 'There was also a games room - a welcome distraction perhaps 955 00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:07,520 'to while away the hours of the unfolding nuclear apocalypse.' 956 00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:09,720 Look, there's a record player here, look. Oh, yeah. 957 00:49:09,720 --> 00:49:11,800 So some reminders of the outside world here. 958 00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:13,400 Yeah, look, what have we got here? 959 00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:15,600 "American Recordings - You'll Never Be 16 Again". 960 00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:17,640 Well, there's a cruel irony in that in the case of 961 00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:20,080 a nuclear holocaust, isn't there? WILL LAUGHS 962 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:22,880 Roy Orbison... I think that's been deliberately put there, hasn't it? 963 00:49:22,880 --> 00:49:24,480 Yeah. Goodness me. 964 00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:29,160 # Oh, no You'll never be 16 again... # 965 00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:33,400 Looks like it. I think this probably was a control room. 966 00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:35,480 It looks like someone's thrown some darts through 967 00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:36,720 the war room map up here. Yeah. 968 00:49:36,720 --> 00:49:39,320 Yeah, actually you can see bits of the map here, look. 969 00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:40,600 Just little bit. Oh, yes! 970 00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:43,200 So this would have been, I think, across the whole wall, actually. 971 00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:45,280 You can just see remnants here. 972 00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:48,720 'In 1953, officials estimated that in the event of 973 00:49:48,720 --> 00:49:53,560 'a nuclear bomb dropped on Wales, over 1.3 million people would die. 974 00:49:53,560 --> 00:49:55,920 'That's some terrifying figures.' 975 00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:59,160 You can imagine if someone levelled a bomb at the city centre, 976 00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:01,720 this is almost the area that would be fried. Yeah. 977 00:50:01,720 --> 00:50:06,560 That is a really quite scary, scary thing to consider, isn't it? 978 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:09,640 'And the more enemy bombers carrying nuclear warheads, 979 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:13,000 'the more chance of one of them slipping through your defences. 980 00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:16,520 'Spy photographs showed the USSR had quite a few.' 981 00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:19,000 MUSIC: White Cyclosa by Boards Of Canada 982 00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:22,240 'Where we are going next is a stark reminder of the lengths to 983 00:50:22,240 --> 00:50:24,440 'which Britain went to counteract that threat. 984 00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:29,760 'Hidden here in a forest is another bunker from the 1950s, 985 00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,760 'that shows Cardiff had its own important role in defending 986 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:34,640 'Britain from nuclear attack.' 987 00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:37,480 CROWS CAW This is the top of a mountain. 988 00:50:37,480 --> 00:50:39,800 We're on a ridge. We're in a forest. 989 00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:43,160 There's crows croaking in the background, and then there's this 990 00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:47,360 very, very bleak-looking concrete block, 991 00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:49,880 almost, sort of, dropped out of the sky in the middle of 992 00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:51,840 this clearing here. 993 00:50:51,840 --> 00:50:53,520 It all feels... 994 00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:55,920 It feels a bit grim, actually. I'll be completely honest. 995 00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:58,040 This is not a nice feeling up here. 996 00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,160 So, in truth, it turned out to be a lot more difficult 997 00:51:07,160 --> 00:51:10,760 to get into this bunker than I anticipated, so... 998 00:51:10,760 --> 00:51:12,840 I've put a call in to our safety guy, 999 00:51:12,840 --> 00:51:15,440 and he's turned up with some ropes and some harnesses. 1000 00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:20,560 'I'm feeling really anxious about this. 1001 00:51:20,560 --> 00:51:23,560 'The only way in now is extremely sketchy, 1002 00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:27,040 'and I've got no clue what's down there in the pitch black.' 1003 00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:31,280 Could you pass me that camera, John? I'm holding on by my fingertips. 1004 00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:32,720 Cool. 1005 00:51:32,720 --> 00:51:35,960 If there IS a bottom. Just switch to night vision here. 1006 00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:38,360 Just flick the infrared on. 1007 00:51:38,360 --> 00:51:40,400 There we go. 1008 00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:41,680 Wow! 1009 00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:43,680 This is something else. 1010 00:51:46,840 --> 00:51:48,160 Goodness me. 1011 00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:50,400 It is dark, it is tight. 1012 00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:54,680 Good grief! 1013 00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:57,800 Good grief! 1014 00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:00,280 OK... 1015 00:52:01,720 --> 00:52:02,960 All right, I'm down. 1016 00:52:04,240 --> 00:52:05,840 Tell me when the rope's free. 1017 00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:07,600 OK, good to go. 1018 00:52:07,600 --> 00:52:09,320 Just sort this camera out. 1019 00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:18,280 Wow. OK, so I'm down at the bottom of the shaft. 1020 00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:27,680 OK, that's better. 1021 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:30,200 We've got... 1022 00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:33,400 some big old switchboard or something in front of me, 1023 00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:35,280 looks like there's some batteries. 1024 00:52:35,280 --> 00:52:38,520 Just going to try and check the floor down here. 1025 00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,360 Bit of debris, but it looks more or less safe. 1026 00:52:41,360 --> 00:52:42,840 CLATTERING 1027 00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:45,400 This isn't very nice now. 1028 00:52:45,400 --> 00:52:48,280 Coming in around this old door. 1029 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:50,520 Let's hope there's nothing round there. 1030 00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:53,320 Might just use the camera to check. It is... 1031 00:52:54,560 --> 00:52:58,000 ..pitch, pitch black down here. 1032 00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:00,200 CLATTERING 1033 00:53:00,200 --> 00:53:04,440 I've walked across jungles on my own in Western Africa... 1034 00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:06,280 HE SIGHS 1035 00:53:06,280 --> 00:53:09,400 I've stayed with isolated tribes in New Guinea... 1036 00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:12,240 but walking around this place just outside of Cardiff 1037 00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:14,040 up on the hill, in the dark... 1038 00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:19,480 This is definitely about as scary as it gets for me. 1039 00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:21,760 Whooo... 1040 00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:23,200 HE SIGHS 1041 00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:26,160 'That's about as much as I can take here on my own, 1042 00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:29,680 'and thankfully, I can hear the rest of the crew making their way down.' 1043 00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:31,520 If you can get your foot... 1044 00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:33,960 Get your foot on there - that's it, I've got you. 1045 00:53:33,960 --> 00:53:36,240 It's pretty tight, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. 1046 00:53:36,240 --> 00:53:38,280 All right, mate? Pretty good. Welcome to the pit. 1047 00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:41,040 Shall we switch on to the good camera now? OK. 1048 00:53:46,160 --> 00:53:49,120 'With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, 1049 00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:52,640 'the threat of a nuclear war seemed more serious than ever. 1050 00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:56,680 'John tells me this huge bunker was one of about 30 secret bases 1051 00:53:56,680 --> 00:53:58,680 'located all over the UK, 1052 00:53:58,680 --> 00:54:02,400 'equipped with high-tech radar and communications equipment.' 1053 00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:06,440 That's stairs there! Stairs, yeah, up to the next level. 1054 00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:08,280 I didn't even see any of this stuff. 1055 00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:11,120 And it looks as if this is the control room, in here. 1056 00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:14,800 Look at this place! 1057 00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:17,200 Essentially, this place would have been able to coordinate 1058 00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:19,280 large gun emplacements on the coast 1059 00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:23,320 to actually fire at incoming enemy aircraft carrying atomic weapons, 1060 00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:26,160 so this was the first, kind of, form of atomic defence, 1061 00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:29,440 this idea that you would have to shoot them out of the sky. 1062 00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:32,480 'This was called an anti-aircraft operations room, 1063 00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:36,320 'and it was situated miles from the guns it remotely operated. 1064 00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:39,080 'That way, if the guns were hit by the enemy, 1065 00:54:39,080 --> 00:54:41,800 'the military personnel were safely hidden here, 1066 00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:43,320 'deep inside the bunker.' 1067 00:54:43,320 --> 00:54:47,120 These would have been offices of the higher-ups, the military personnel, 1068 00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:49,520 looking down on the control room, making decisions. 1069 00:54:49,520 --> 00:54:51,760 Exactly, looking down at the maps. 1070 00:54:53,400 --> 00:54:57,280 Making sure nobody's sleeping on the job. Yeah. 1071 00:54:58,480 --> 00:55:01,720 'Dozens of military personnel worked here in secret. 1072 00:55:01,720 --> 00:55:05,000 'In the event of a nuclear war, an air purification system 1073 00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:08,880 'and water filters meant the bunker could be sealed from radiation, 1074 00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:11,840 'allowing the staff to remain down here for months.' 1075 00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:16,280 I mean, it looked pretty big from the outside, 1076 00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:21,040 but the inside just goes on and on and on. 1077 00:55:21,040 --> 00:55:23,480 You see, a lot of people often think about the Second World War 1078 00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:25,760 and the Cold War as kind of separate things, 1079 00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:27,760 but this sort of place shows you that, you know, 1080 00:55:27,760 --> 00:55:29,680 after the end of the Second World War, 1081 00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:31,760 Britain was thinking about the world, how it was... 1082 00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:33,200 Thinking about military threats, 1083 00:55:33,200 --> 00:55:35,760 and this is a really good example of something like that. 1084 00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:38,080 It's very much carrying on the kind of World War II thinking 1085 00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:39,320 about defence. 1086 00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:42,560 What was the point, then, that things started to wind down here 1087 00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:46,200 in terms of, you know, the monitoring of the nuclear weapons 1088 00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:48,560 that could potentially be brought over by aircraft? 1089 00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:52,200 In the 1950s, once the missile technology did get better, these... 1090 00:55:52,200 --> 00:55:54,920 The original purpose of this particular structure 1091 00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:55,960 became redundant. 1092 00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:58,600 And also, new radar technology came in, as well, 1093 00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:00,960 so there was no longer any particular reason 1094 00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:03,120 to have these types of structures. 1095 00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:08,680 I don't think a lot of these Cold War structures 1096 00:56:08,680 --> 00:56:10,400 are kind of well-known. 1097 00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:12,840 They're not accessible, and in a sense, 1098 00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:14,960 the Cold War seems to be almost a shut book, 1099 00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:17,480 so people don't really talk about the Cold War any more. 1100 00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:18,720 Is funny, isn't it? 1101 00:56:18,720 --> 00:56:21,560 You know, if this was a World War I or a World War II site, 1102 00:56:21,560 --> 00:56:23,200 there'd be a tour guide out the front, 1103 00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:26,040 probably someone selling ice creams and T-shirts, but... Yeah. 1104 00:56:26,040 --> 00:56:28,640 ..the Cold War, it just didn't quite capture... 1105 00:56:28,640 --> 00:56:31,640 Well, it's because it was passive defence, in a sense, isn't it? 1106 00:56:31,640 --> 00:56:34,520 So these buildings were never used to help the country recover 1107 00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:35,800 after a nuclear war. 1108 00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:38,400 In a way, it's a hidden history for that reason, as well. 1109 00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:40,640 Dozens of these buildings were created, 1110 00:56:40,640 --> 00:56:43,600 but then they were never used for their intended purpose. 1111 00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:45,640 BIRDSONG 1112 00:56:45,640 --> 00:56:48,000 In the 1960s, bunkers like this one 1113 00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:50,800 were redesigned as regional war rooms. 1114 00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:53,440 Their purpose was to secretly house government officials 1115 00:56:53,440 --> 00:56:56,360 who could run the country after a nuclear attack. 1116 00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:59,120 Amazingly, this one remained in operation 1117 00:56:59,120 --> 00:57:01,760 right up until the early 1990s. 1118 00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:11,960 And it was in the early 90s that Cardiff entered 1119 00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:14,800 a period of considerable regeneration. 1120 00:57:14,800 --> 00:57:18,240 With a huge amount of European funding and private investment, 1121 00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:22,080 the city centre, the docks and the Bay were reshaped and rebuilt. 1122 00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:26,920 Cardiff became the centre 1123 00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:29,720 for Wales's devolved national government. 1124 00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:33,240 Billions of pounds of development money 1125 00:57:33,240 --> 00:57:35,880 will soon change the Welsh capital once again, 1126 00:57:35,880 --> 00:57:38,920 and from the top of the city's biggest building site, 1127 00:57:38,920 --> 00:57:41,800 it feels like it's already happening. 1128 00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:45,440 I think what I've learned is actually just how new Cardiff is. 1129 00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:48,000 Sure, people have lived here for thousands of years, 1130 00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:50,520 but the city itself is relatively new, 1131 00:57:50,520 --> 00:57:55,120 and its default setting is to delete the past and move on. 1132 00:57:55,120 --> 00:57:57,120 On the one hand, that seems fine. 1133 00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:00,040 Evolution is really important to any modern-day city, 1134 00:58:00,040 --> 00:58:02,520 but there is always a price to pay. 1135 00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:08,400 Cardiff was built on the backs of industry and hard graft, 1136 00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:12,000 but it's new modern-day character revolves around retail, 1137 00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:14,320 finance and communications, 1138 00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:18,560 and I worry that with such a new, brave start, 1139 00:58:18,560 --> 00:58:22,080 we might just forget where we once came from. 1140 00:58:23,080 --> 00:58:27,280 # Cardiff in the sun 1141 00:58:27,280 --> 00:58:30,960 # Sha la la la la la la la 1142 00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:37,000 # Sha la la la la la la la La la la la la la 1143 00:58:39,040 --> 00:58:43,280 # Cardiff in the sun 1144 00:58:43,280 --> 00:58:47,000 # Sha la la la la la la la 1145 00:58:47,000 --> 00:58:53,200 # Sha la la la la la la la La la la la la la... #