Hart Harbour

Regarded as being the most working class and insalubrious of all of Harthill's districts, Hart Harbour in the south west of the town is dominated by the two largest industrial areas in the town, the McIntyre Steelworks and Harthill Harbour which gives the district its name.
As well as being the centre of the town’s major industry and it’s gateway to the world beyond the shores of Wales and the United Kingdom, Hart Harbour is also regarded as being one the roughest area in the whole of Harthill. Those with any pretensions or a strong sense of social standing approach the area with extreme caution, and seldom enter it without good reason, avoiding it almost all together during the hours of darkness.

Demographics

Hart Harbour is a solidly working class area, with the majority of its residents being employed as stevedores, dockers, porters or fishermen based out of Harthill Harbour or the two freight train stations in the district; ironworkers at the McIntyre Steelworks; or otherwise as other forms of unskilled labourers throughout the town.
Many of those resident in the area work hard to provide a consistent, though often lacking living for their families, which means that few of the people resident in Hart Harbour have the capital to own their properties outright, and the vast majority of the districts inhabitants are tenants of properties owned by people from the more salubrious districts.
One particular part of the district, The Mumbles is the most destitute part of the district and the town at large. It is a serious of makeshift structures and dilapidated buildings inhabited by the most down at heel of Harthill’s society, whose occupants are looked down on even by other residents of Hart Harbour.
There are also a small number of middle and even upper class people who live in Hart Harbour, often around the district’s northern boundary with Green Glades. Most of these individuals are either too frugal to bring themselves to buy or rent rooms in a more expensive area of town, are down on their luck and need to pinch pennies, or desire to live and go about their activities unnoticed.
In addition, in recent years it has become more popular for students of Teliávus University to take up rooms or rent houses in Hart Harbour, especially those students who would rather spend more on drinking and life’s pleasures than on accommodation.

Infrastructure

Hart Harbour’s infrastructure is perhaps the most limited of all of the districts in the town. Whilst its main roads are well paved and maintained, to facilitate the flow of traffic from the major industrial centres, the rest of the districts streets are paved with ageing cobbles, often with large potholes pockmarking its surface.
In terms of amenities, aside from the numerous small shops that are littered throughout the district, Hart Harbour has a large open air market, Gravel Street Market, that not only provides the majority of the food for its residents, but also almost anything else that one could imagine.
The district is also well appointed with public houses and taverns and it has the highest concentration of houses of ill-repute.
The location of the McIntyre Steelworks in the district also means that Harthill Firestation is also located in Hart Harbour, as the steelworks was identified as being the most at risk building of a conflagration breaking out.
On the face of it, Hart Harbour is the most well connected of all of Harthill's districts, as it is connected to the rest of the world beyond the town’s borders by both sea and rail. However, almost all of the naval traffic that moves through Harthill Harbour is linked to industry, and the district’s two train stations are primarily designed to transport coal, metalwork and other trade goods to and from the harbour, to the McIntyre Steelworks and to facilitate the transport of coal and iron from the many mines in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons mountains in the north of The Vale of Glamorgan.

Architecture

Most of Hart Harbour is made up of stolid, workmanlike terraces of victorian houses, most of which are made up of two rooms on the ground floor and two rooms on the first floor, with most of them still retaining the outside privies installed when the houses were first constructed.
The main exception to this, apart from the large industrial areas: the McIntyre Steelworks and Harthill Harbour and its surrounding warehouses is The Mumbles, whose buildings are primarily single story shacks built out of anything that can be scraped together, or tumbled down houses in desperate need of repair, which have been patched up with anything at hand.

Notable Locations

The notable locations of Hart Harbour, aside from the obvious Harthill Harbour and McIntyre Steelworks, tend to be known only to those who live in the district, or who have strong connections there, and they seldom attracted tourists or visitors from other parts of Harthill.
The beating heart of the district is the Gravel Street Market, which provides for the majority of the resident’s commercial needs, providing goods of all kinds, both licit and illicit if you know who to ask, at much more reasonable rates than the other commercial hubs of the town. The trade off is, however, that most of these goods are of a lower quality than those being sold in other parts of Harthill.
In addition, the district has a large number of public houses, taverns and social clubs. Three of the most distinctive are the Wolf Tavern, the Crystal Lounge and Maxim's.

• The Wolf Tavern is a well-known front for the activities of the notorious Halem Family, who control Harthill’s criminal underworld, whose activities, including its infamous Friday Fights are allowed to go on unchecked, thanks to the reticence of the local South Glamorgan Constabulary to get involved, along with the large amount of bribes the Halems are regularly thought to distribute to key figures across town.
• The Crystal Lounge is a much more reputable establishment, a bar near the boundary with the Town Centre, whose rather eccentric owner has tried to give a carnival feel to, in order to attract tourists and more discerning drinkers from the Town Centre and other districts of the town. It is particularly known for its resident medium and psychic the Marvellous Malvolio.
• Maxim's, located on French Row, barely a stone’s throw from the district boundary with Green Glades, is the sort of place that many of the high society gentlemen of Harthill will know about, but there are few who would admit this knowledge. This is because Maxim’s is a high end burlesque club and brothel, regularly attracting a large base of clientele from amongst the eligible high class bachelors, and those pretending to be bachelors from the more affluent areas of town.

There is also a small church school, Queen Anne's School, linked to the nearby Anglican church of St Francis of Assisi, which provides free education for both the districts boys and girls throughout their formative years.

Location under

Harthill

Included Locations

• Maxim's
• McIntyre Steelworks
• The Crystal Lounge
• The Wolf Tavern