I worked at the Whiteheads steel works (opposite the Royal Gwent) for many years. We would always start (10am'ish!) our Christmas drinking session from a huge pub/hotel just by the transporter bridge. I forgot the the name of the place, as it was going back about 17-18 years ago, I think it was called the West Country (or a similar West country theme name to it?). As I said, it was huge, however, there was only a small bar area and a slightly larger skittle alley area that was actually operational for us to drink in. Considering the size of the property it was so surprising to see how little of it was being used.

That kind of set the whole tone of the area as we made our way down Commercial road and towards the centre. Lost count of the number of pubs that were on each corner of that long road, many of them boarded up a long time ago. It was just as well that some of those pubs were no longer open as there'd be no way we could have made it from one end of Commercial Road to the other.

Pill must have been a great, thriving, area in its heyday... just like most docks areas I would imagine.