Penarth Pier stretches into the Bristol Channel just south of Cardiff, a Victorian structure built in the 1890s for a very specific purpose: convincing the English that Welsh sea air was worth the trip. It worked rather well.

Paddle steamers once loaded passengers here for Sunday excursions to Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Ilfracombe, the crossings especially popular on the Sabbath when Wales was "dry" and alcohol could only be purchased four miles from home. Some boats hired twenty-eight-piece bands for the return journey, which tells you something about how those evenings ended.

The pier's Art Deco pavilion, added in 1929, has had its zinc-clad roof painted to resemble oxidised copper and now houses a café, gallery and small art house cinema. It won Pier of the Year in 2014.

VoiceMap's tours use the pier to trace Penarth's transformation from "Dirty Dock" to millionaires' row, connecting Sunday booze cruises to the coal wealth that built one of Victorian Wales's most elegant towns.