Cardiff Ely Bread Riots

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The Cardiff Ely Bread Riots or Petrol Riots refer to the outbreak of racially motivated violence that occurred in the council suburb of Ely in the Welsh capital of Cardiff during July 1991.

Rising racial tensions on the estate of Ely came to a head and was reported to have been intitiated between a dispute between two shopkeepers, one white and one Asian, who had started to sell bread and put the other out of business. The riots escalated on Wilson Road, a grocery road in Ely and was fuelled by high unemployment and crime ^[1].

Angry mobs gathered in the streets, especially at night, throwing milk bottles filled with petrol and eggs and launched a series of attacks on local shops and housing. Many buildings were ablaze for days and many shops and houses were boarded up.

[edit] Response

Police forces, riot squads and fire services from all across the Vale of Glamorgan were called in the keep the outbreak at bay. The event made the headlines of national UK news for two days running which only helped to fuel the outbreak of violence. For many residents of Ely, the disorder was only experienced via the news as it only affected a restricted area of the district. Many feel that the scale of the event has been exaggerated, supporting a harmful stereotype of Ely that still exists today.