Colonial Seamen’s Centre

The Colonial Seamen’s Centre was founded in 1943 for destitute seamen in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, with funding from the Ministry of Labour and National Services, in cooperation with the Colonial Office. It consisted of a dormitory, reading room, recreation room and dance hall.

Soon after it opened, racialized minority people living in Cardiff demanded to be involved in its administration. The South Wales Association for the Welfare of Coloured People (SWAWCP) supported this demand and argued that the centre should be a place where contact between locals and seamen could be fostered. In response, government authorities appointed a local advisory committee, which included left-wing politicians, members of SWAWCP, members of the left-wing Colonial Defence Association, local Methodists and Muslims. A few months after opening, the SWAWCP ran experimental weekly classes at the centre for racialized minority children in the area, to improve their chances of progressing to secondary school.

Meeting minutes from 1943 suggest issues between the nominated advisory committee and the managers of the centre, which included disputes about who should be nominated as warden of the centre, as well as a lack of enforcement of rules that prohibited the admittance of under-18s and women to the centre.