Tiger Bay is the former dock area of Cardiff. It is now revitalised as Cardiff Bay due to the building of the multi-million pound Cardiff Barrage which dams the tidal rivers Ely and Taff to create a body of water.

Tiger Bay was notorious for being a tough and dangerous area to be in, merchant seamen arrived in Cardiff from all over the world, only staying for as long as it took to discharge and reload their ships, consequently many murders and lesser crimes went unsolved and unpunished, the perpetrators having sailed for other ports. It also had a well-integrated multi-racial community, its most famous former resident being Shirley Bassey.

The British film, Tiger Bay (1959), starred John Mills and Hayley Mills. Shot on location in Tiger Bay and Newport, (a town about 12 miles away) it features many authentic scenes of the children's street culture, and the black street culture, of the time. It also features many dockside shots, scenes in real pubs and in the countryside that surrounds the area. The movie marks a vital transitional moment in the move towards the British new wave cinema exemplified a few years later by A Taste of Honey (1961).