Queen Alexandra Dock
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Queen Alexandra Dock is a dock in Cardiff Bay on the coast of Cardiff in south Wales. It was one of the principal ports during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century during the age of coal exportation and along with Barry grew to be the largest coal exporter in the world by 1913.
However following World War I when the coal trade declined rapidly the dock became deserted and left to mudflats. However by the 1980s the great potential of Cardiff Bay and the dock became realised and the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation began extensive development of the dock and the rest of the bay. A number of shopping complexes were built at the site but during the 1990s in became the location of one of the points of the Cardiff Bay Barrage which was built across to Penarth Head.
The site was the centre of a great deal of environmental controversy during this period with powerful oppositions from environmental NGOs such as Friends of the Earth and RSPB who argued that the mudflats in the dock were vital to the spawning of birds in what was previously a RAMSAR and SSSI site protected by European law of the EU. However in the end the protection site was relocated down the coast and the dock was allowed to become a man made lake, operated by the construction of the new barrage.
Queen Alexandra dock is now dominated by the harboured fishing vessels and other personal water craft within the bounds of the adjacent Cardiff Bay Barrage which has become a trendy, wealthy area of the city of Cardiff.
The Queen Alexandra dock is still in use today, with shipping movements varying from a couple of movements to 10 or 12 per tide.
