Sailortown

[3] Sailortowns were found in major seaports, including London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Cardiff, Hull, Tyneside, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, New York, San Francisco and many others in Europe, North and South America, West Indies, the East, Africa, and Australia.

[8] Folksinger and author Stan Hugill published, in 1967, a book on this topic, Sailortown, but his account has been criticized for "relying almost exclusively on generalisation, titillation and shock-value".

Such institutions provided such things, as "board, lodging and medical attendance, at a moderate charge" to protect seamen from extortion, as well as "to promote their moral, intellectual, and professional improvement; and to afford them the opportunity of receiving religious instruction".

[9] In 1859, in Sydney, Australia, a provisional committee of citizens was formed with the object of building a Sailors’ Home to provide them with comfortable accommodation while the seamen were ashore.

[citation needed] Until the 1970s "much of Liverpool's sailortown area was clustered around the city centre, extending inland from Albert, Canning and Salthouse Docks".

[12] Located on the edge of Narrow Street on the Wapping waterfront it was made up of lodging houses, bars, brothels, music halls and opium dens.

[13] Urban redevelopment in the late 1960s resulted in Sailortown's eventual demolition; only two churches, several pubs, and three houses remain of the once bustling waterfront enclave.

[14] During the nineteenth century as Cardiff's coal exports grew, so did its population; as dockworkers and sailors from across the world settled in neighbourhoods close to the docks, known as Tiger Bay (see also Butetown).

[18] According to author Daniel Bacon, daytime San Francisco's "old Barbary Coast was quiet, save for a few clothing shops, maritime businesses and auction houses".