The wide High Street and connecting ter races were laid out for David Williams of Castell Deudraeth (Por tmeir ion).
C
, Penlan Isaf Pebbledash with brown ter racotta. Gabled buttresses flank a broad Per p central window. Outer tur rets with octagonal finials. Raised up over the schoolroom C
C
, School Street. Now a house.
, probably by the Rev. Thomas Thomas, altered
Rock-f aced g ranite with slight limestone dressings The impost of the g iant arch connects all the window imposts – tall slim outer ones and a Palladian tr iplet.
G
C
M
C
, on the
A road. , by Richard Owens, similar to his Taber nacle, Aber ystwyth, –, but better ar ticulated and more consistently Italian Projecting pedimented centre, balustraded outer bays. The centre has tr iple arched windows and angle pier s above, broad cor niced doorcase and quoins below. The outer bays repeat on the sides for g reater effect
, by T. M. Penson, for Louisa Oakeley of Tan-y-bwlch (Maentwrog). Nave and chancel; cusped lancets and a slim octagonal spired tur ret over a spher ical-tr iangle window. The sur pr isingly large porch has ballflower decoration and shafts with foliage capitals.
window, s, stiff drawing , St Paul at Athens Two lancets, , one by Powells, the one possibly by Jones & Willis.
N
Ter race , remodelled in
, Nazareth
by Richard Owens A long-wall front g iven an imposing Italianate f açade in rockf aced r ubble and ashlar. Three bays, each with a pair of Florentine windows Balustraded parapet with ur ns, solid to the centre with the name in big letter s. Heavy cor niced porches with square pillar s.
T
, r., with canted bays flanking a latticed porch
W
C
, High Street. . Dark r ubble with orangey sandstone. Giant arch and pilaster s, suggesting the Rev Thomas Thomas The pilaster s are thin channelled str ips with ur ns on the outer shoulder s.
C
S
, School Street. , by Deakin & Howard Jones Stone with typical orange ter racotta Five bays Three gables project with big windows, the central one Palladian, the other s arched; the inter mediate windows rectangular, with a gablet over just the middle light
N
S
, on the A
road.
, by Thomas Rober ts of Por thmadog. Single-storey with a busy roof-line; slated central lanter n, half-hipped roof pushed out at one end over the bell and a big arched window. Buttressed front with pair s of pointed windows. Now a house.
, of the church , perhaps by T M Penson Rubble with slate lintels and hoodmoulds. The gable has a nar row two-storey bay with deep-mullioned lights. Big acor n finials to the staircase
Trem-yr-wyddf a. , by Gwynedd County Architects, project architect Dylan Rober ts. A long ish cur ved building overlooking a lake Trefor g ranite with limestone dressings, stained timber windows, slate roofs – local mater ials de r igueur for a planning author ity. Five linked blocks step up, two each side of the entrance atr ium After the hard entrance f ace, the sunny lake f açade is softer, more glazed, the roofs cascading to almost head height. Much timber inside; par ticularly big laminated roof beams
M
, of the church. , by Clough Williams-Ellis. Stuccoed villa, with single-storey surger y attached. The approach, through a gateway and past the six-window surger y, leads to a Palladian logg ia in the end wall. Neo-Georg ian front of –– bays, with a shallow pedimental gable and, under the hipped ends, bedroom balconies over the logg ias Sash windows.
M
, ½ m.
. . An early work by Gr iffith Mor r is of Por thmadog for C F Cooke of Cooke’s Explosives Smallish stone villa. L-plan with half-hipped gables, the roof slid down over the porch in the angle. The gable to the l. has the recessed bay window of the contemporar y Caer nar vonshire ‘open-air’ schools and other Mor r is houses.
T
m. . Early to mid- end-chimney house, the three bays offset Big blocked fireplace and mural stair with window. T-plan f ar m buildings, to , to the , with gable dove holes.
Model resor t village on the side of the Dwyr yd estuar y, by Clough Williams-Ellis, –, with additions c . – by his daughter Susan Williams-Ellis. It was mostly conceived in two per iods of reconstr uction, after the and war s; the fir st per iod reflecting the architect’s Ar ts and Crafts training , the second drawing more on classical imager y. The unique circumstances reflect the freedom of one ar tist, on his home g round, to act as owner, designer and developer. Williams-Ellis (
) was dr iven by a quest for a more cheerful public architectural language than the sever ities of local design since Late Victor ian days, and had the prescience that tour ist business could provide the oppor tunity. He was lucky also to leave a f amily who have followed that vision, and who through the Clough Williams-Ellis Foundation have steered it into the moder n economy.
One of the most per sonal architectural statements of the , Por tmeir ion does not confor m to the per iod’s design movements as generally under stood. Nikolaus Pevsner aptly remarked that Williams-Ellis was ‘between traditional and moder n’; put another way, visitor s may see Por tmeir ion as expressing an edgy
relationship to Moder nist architecture – not least because Williams-Ellis did not accept all that was proposed by the architectural world of his lifetime. In its deter mination to communicate tr uths through architectural jesting , Por tmeir ion is disquietingly sophisticated as well as naïve.*
The wooded peninsula between Traeth Bach and Traeth Mawr was adopted in the mid by Gr uffydd and Maredudd, sons of Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd, pr ince of Gwynedd, as the site of a castle called Aber Iâ; its rocky knoll overlooks the village. This gave the name for the early Victor ian villa of the Westmacott f amily (adopted as the hotel) in the bay below, with a fine stone quay to its . The dr ive from Minffordd to an older house, Castell Deudraeth (see p ), was extended into the valley above, which was levelled to make a walled garden with a gardener’s cottage, and with a stable range beside it to the . The woods in the Gwyllt were planted with exotics by the late owner, Caton Haigh, becoming the backdrop to a village always intimately associated with trees. These features were accepted with little change into the layout, together with the matchless natural beauty of the site with its steep ascents and drops and rocks like cantilever s, all contrasting with the levels of the sea or the exposed estuar ine sands below
The abandoned estate was bought by Williams-Ellis in . His existing idea of an architectural island, a cross between Italy’s Lakes and Riviera landscapes and his Ar ts and Crafts training (for which he had f ailed to find a site sailing round the Br itish coasts), was adapted for a citadel on the cliff above the hotel building Its scale was kept small for economy; its bell-tower’s per spective was forced; its coloured plaster surf aces were based on Claud Lovat Fraser’s sets for The Beggar’s Opera at the Lyr ic Theatre, Hammer smith The genius in this siting was never exceeded, but it was the anchor for the exper iment in town planning that followed.
The resor t proved commercially viable as an early motel, based on accommodating motor car s as well as humans. It was also from the star t a sociable place, dependent like the life of countr y houses on the char m and competence of owner s – in this case the architect and his founder manager James Wyllie – and was recognized and welcomed as visual amusement by ser ious people Williams-Ellis’s exper iments were measured against thoughtful and responsible contemporar ies, with whom he had contacts through his London practice and his literar y wife Amabel † Public places need signage: he designed his own, in fine
* From the fir st the village had its guide-book, culminating in Por tmeir ion, the Place and its Meaning, and , and now a fuller guidebook and the study Por tmeir ion, . † Other s as diver se as Maxwell Fr y, Chr istopher Hussey, Lewis Mumford and John Cor nfor th have been drawn to wr ite ser iously about Por tmeir ion.
italic letter ing Craftsmen and ar tists need work: he offered them oppor tunities at some new project. There were cur ious ar tef acts from the past on the market: he put them on show. Building is an unending process: his village lives in a c ycle of the old and the new. These are attr ibutes of the Ar ts and Crafts Movement, which he fused with features of the classical and Mediter ranean worlds in a way par ticular to himself , and beyond imitation The whole eludes str ict architectural analysis for the simple reason that it is not architecturally str ict.
Yet these paradoxes of whim and patr iotism, of outrageous ar tificiality and deep love of architecture, have consistently been found hard to take both by the architectural profession and by par t of the public The place may seem bafflingly ambitious for a hobby, and wor r yingly insubstantial as architecture; the fir st phases were lightly built for economy and speed (there were six months for works each closed winter season), so plaster on wire mesh on timber framing sometimes stood in for conventional walling , a tr ibute to the skills of the master mason Henr y Davies. Por tmeir ion’s irony is that what was made to be temporar y has now become per manent: with the substitution of the lasting for the frag ile, the f abr ic has become more architectural.
Did Clough Williams-Ellis get away with it? Thir ty-five year s after his death, and over eighty year s since the fir st realization, it seems that he may have. While its improvising creator is no longer in daily charge, its message of the need for gaiety in life and ar t is unchanged. Strangest of all, some for ty of its fifty main buildings were listed Grade II in , one of the fir st cases of a living architect’s work being so recognized
Por tmeir ion looks well when filled with the unbelievable number of people attracted there in daytime; other moods include ver y good floodlighting at night, and the mild and damp solitudes of the Welsh coast out of season. Given its discur sive character – garden village, fur nished outdoor space, commercial exhibition, ‘home for f allen buildings’, demonstration of handicraft – it seems best to descr ibe it mostly by means of shor t perambulations. Areas pr ivate to the holiday tenants are so indicated on site, but the available roads and paths reveal almost (but not quite) all that matter s of a place that is not ver y large.
. The largest building in the centre, and visually the noblest Being in a pr ivate village and so without a council, it ser ves for social events. Its gener ic for m follows the Ar ts and Crafts village or college memor ial halls that Williams-Ellis designed in the s, but its f abr ic has an air of romance. It is composed of the stones – g reat thr icemullioned windows, doorways made up with Tudor fireplaces – of the Jacobean par t of Emral Hall in Flintshire, a house (says Edward Hubbard, The Buildings of Wales: Clwyd ) ‘of strangely haunting beauty’. At the demolition sale in Williams-Ellis
boughtthegreatchamberceilingwithitsreliefsofheroic actions(£),thenhadtoacquiresufficientextrafabricto re-erectitworthily,therebysavingoneofthebestRenaissance worksofartinWales.
Verytall,asymmetricalupperstoreywithfive-lightoriel windows,facedwithcarefullytexturedlimeplasterwithared ochrelimewash,onalowbasementofbarestonework.The mainentranceisbyaporch-towerclosingthecross-axisofthe piazza.Thisrisestoagreatheightabovetiersofoldglassin stonewindowframes,thenviaatowerasanattictierwith inward-curvingroofandsquarelanternincontrasting materials,toatopknotconfectedfromready-madecopper objects.Itswallsareenrichedwitholdarmorialcarvings,new hangingsignsandanovalirongrillefromSoane’sBankof England.Initsporchabronzeportrait ofWilliams-Ellis ateightyyearsby JonahJones,
The orH H ,asreassembled, hasanorielfacing andanine-lightwindowlooking .Its oakwainscotdatesfromthereconstructionofEmralHall inthe sby RichardTrubshaw and JosephEvans:fluted Corinthianpilastersflankingdoubledoorsinsemicircularheadedframes,thefireplacewithitsplasterpanelwith anallegoricalfigure,thewallsotherwisewithdeepraisedfieldpanelling.Attheentranceanornatewoodensign proudlyannouncingachargetosee‘thecelebratedHallof Hercules’.
Theearly plaster isaflatvaultwithcurved sides,designedtodisplayscenesoftheExploitsofHercules arrangedinthreerowsoffour,andinstalledherein by thejoiner, R. O. Williams.Thearticulatingstrapworkhasan airofearly Gothic,itsmotif(afinialshapewithinwardcurvingsidesandtriangulartop)beingarrangedininterlockingpatternsoffoursothattherearefourteenspacesforZodiac signsaswell.Thelatterareincompleteandalsoseemto includeanimalsfromtheHerculesmyths.Thetwelvescenes aredepictedonalargerscale,theirsculpturalqualitynotthe finest.Thoughbasedonclassicaliconography,theydonotcorrespondexactlywiththeTwelveLabours.Startingatthe corner,siderow:theinfantHerculesstranglingthesnakesin hisbed(partlysubstitutedafterdamageinremoval);Hercules withhisclub,carryingtheboarofErymanthusonhisshoulders;Herculesfightingoffthecentaurs;Herculesmastering Cerberus.Centrerow,fromthe :Herculesbeheadingthe Hydra;Hercules(dressedasaJacobeangentleman)takingthe girdleofHippolyte(?);HerculesandAtlasholdingtheglobe oftheworld;HerculesrescuingHesione,chainedtoarock andabouttobedevouredbyaseadragon.Siderow,fromthe :HerculesandtheNemeanlion;Diomedespunished byHerculestobedevouredbyhisowncarnivorousmares; HerculeswrestlingwithAntaeus,withamoatedhouseinthe background;Herculestakingagoldenapplefromthegarden oftheHesperides,whichisguardedbyasplendiddragon.
In the lunette, a Dor ic arcade with four allegor ical figures; in the thin lunette, a deer hunt.
Attached to the a new added by Gr uffydd Pr ice, , incor porating panelling from Castell Deudraeth; attached at the a large flat-roofed with f açade arches and over-scaled entr y balustrades, by Susan Williams-Ellis, c – Both rather hem this fine building in C . High above the town hall is the site of the small Welsh castle of Aber Iâ. Now just a knoll of rock with a stone revetment added by Williams-Ellis in On it was a tower, perhaps built by the Welsh; a stone str ucture on top was robbed for Aberlâ House in the . On the side of the knoll a , round, with a g reen tent roof and pierced iron parapets with mer maids, from a demolished sailor s’ home in Liver pool (by John Cunningham, –). Designed by Susan Williams-Ellis in for the centenar y of her f ather’s bir th, it sails in trees above the Town Hall, providing an unexpected viewpoint back to the piazza in the village centre and its skyline
The fir st perambulation deals with the entrance and the main approach to the hotel. As for the rest of Por tmeir ion, the initial concept seems to have included two zones, a significant mark on the landscape seen from the sea, culminating in the Campanile, and sketches for urban ar ticulation behind. Before long , a belt of slightly larger str uctures began to for m a new skyline inland again. These three zones are here the subjects of distinct perambulations. That for the Citadel, and the final perambulation cover ing the second-phase skyline buildings and the back dr ive, have to be in two par ts since the little paths penetrating them are now pr ivate to residents.
. The Entrance and the Old Dr ive to the Hotel
The dr ive from Minffordd introduces small buildings g iven some g raceful detail, like C
Y on the l : effects that are overwhelmed on the r. by the s masonr y pomposities of C
(see p.
). On the closer approach, a
; a glimpse of D
G
(), the entrance to P
( for Donald and Isobel Hall), all on the l. and by Williams-Ellis; and the tiny C M
by Lionel Esher, c , the one contr ibution by a national Moder nist.
In the glade of trees in front of the main entrance, the free g ravelled space sur vives which Williams-Ellis thought good for parking car s; it has its painted steel cut-out obelisk and yellow star still. This general area was seen as unresolved by WilliamsEllis The key features in the
and
s were the stone for mer
(early
r A later discrete area for coaches has thick
and iron gates reusing the Tremadog Market Hall design. The architect’s last little str ucture is an outer miniature pillared
of
(with a taller companion, ) On the r. the
The inner for mer
evokes a stone castle r uin; within it a painted steel cut-out mer maid (made for the Obser vator y Tower, p ) Set back on either side, the star t of domestic building again: C
(
), r., now hotel reception, is in the older cottage manner with a cur ving br idge to the upper flat; C
(also
) is light classical, with an eroded mid-
statue of a huntsman beside it.
The mid-Victor ian dr ive to the house by the estuar y (now pedestr ianized) becomes a clear route at this point. It descends in a double loop, round the for mer walled garden (now Piazza) and for mer stables, and finally by steep g radient to the quay At the top, G
) has a cr ucial par t to play: it spans the dr ive at the point where a defile in trees opens to a full view of the Dwyr yd estuar y Random windows suggesting long evolution, the three main sides each in a different style and colour. The arch and taper ing super str ucture imitate a oncedefended medieval village A ver tical band of symbolic and heraldic motifs is centred on the outward-f acing arch: badges of royalty, honour, pr incehood, Wales. Neo-Baroque painted ceiling by Hans Feibusch, a composition of two couples of flying figures. On the r. beyond, a semicircular
, combining Second World War defence with an eye for future embellishments Beside it, across the road, B
); again three styles and colour s: red ochre, ultramar ine and a Venetian window the outer side, yellow with white pilaster s and vases like a doll’s house f acing the square Emergence, still among gardened rocks, into the br ight and busy B
is one of the village successes. On the l. a minute but ingenious booth for the s toll-keeper The pr incipal ranges of building either side – broadly the fir st and final phases of development – are descr ibed in distinct perambulations, pp , The square is closed at the by the complicated little pair ing of the L ’ L (–) and the R H (–). The for mer evolved from a garage to a shop, acquir ing Baroque gables, a lunette painting by Feibusch, etc. Steps descend between them to fur ther perambulations; overhead is a br idge and walkway par t-concealed in the arcade screen, which hides the apsidal shape of the second building , also a shop. The main descent follows the road past the wayside
with its film-set Buddha (
), and lesser architectural moments including the tantalizing walls screening the Piazza, to the mid-Victor ian ex-stable cour tyard. This was conver ted as S
or a tearoom in , and later as a third set of shops including the S
) outside on the
s), and the painted timber workshops called S
Or ig inal f abr ic with fish-scale roof slates and spiral-moulded yellow ter racotta chimney pots, but ‘Cloughed
up’ with outbreaks of or nament, lively domestic-commercial additions round a black-and-white paved cour t, and a garland mural by Nigel Simmons (restor ing or ig inals of c. by Susan Williams-Ellis)
A tur n to the reveals a streetscape between Arches (–) and the Café and Town Hall (p. ) on the r., and on the l., Tr inity (–), Neptune, and The Angel (both ), the latter two among the pioneer cottages on the site. T A is a key building in two vistas, but in its own r ight an exemplar y design The plan is an S, walls and hipped roofs following its cur ves as on West Countr y cottages, with a slight overhang which, car r ied on pillar s, becomes the feature of the end On the side an angel, one of the early simple reliefs to explain a building. On N it is the roof which spor ts the wobbles, while the overhang is played up till it is neither hor izontal nor, on the , continuous since two windows break up through it. On the street side still more apparent additions and f antasy signs; shops fill both g round floor s. The slightly batter ing front of A , opposite, was based on a design of for garages and staff flats, becoming in an antiques shop adver tised by a fine elliptical panel by Feibusch. The Town Hall porch and gateway opposite close this little sloping street, one of the most br illiant of Por tmeir ion’s miniature environments.
On the l of the quickening slope down to the hotel, A (, but designed ) and F () have three full storeys, hardly seen since they stand on the quay level, their backs to the cliff The approach is by br idge to the top floor s, protected by a small pagoda-roofed lodge with another mural by Feibusch, a mar ine couple. The circulation of visitor s drawn towards the quay into the pr ivac y of the hotel’s immediate precinct was resolved in the or ig inal layout by a quite different route from the Gate House at the top to the shore fur ther A set of descending to the quay on the l outside the hotel forecour t, over which the other axes pass on br idges, was devised by Richard Haslam in . H
The Victor ian villa of Aber Iâ stood above the sea on two stone ter races. Two single-bay wings looking project from a rectangular house entered at the . Fish-scale slate roofs, yellow ter racotta spiral chimney pots In the hall a big stone chimneypiece car ved with the Westmacott bee emblem; in the drawing room f acing the sea a chimneypiece car ved with figures of medieval romances Fire in damaged the librar y’s car vings, especially the fine door panels of game by John Rogers, and destroyed the staircase inser ted c . (since reproduced) The architects for the restoration, , were John Ricardo Pearce and Gr uffydd Pr ice. This house opened as the Por tmeir ion Hotel in . A three-bay bedroom wing designed for the end was eventually placed beyond a recessed block added to the villa. At g round-floor level the main rooms were extended: the swelling cur ve of the new restaurant (), where the roof was
held up by sections of mast from a ketch wrecked in the bay; the smaller bow between the Victor ian wings; and the similar bow for the manager’s office outside the hall – the last destroyed by fire in , together with the bar made from the timber s of HMS Arethusa, the last man-of-war to sail into action. Por tmeir ion’s essential colour s were established here: white walls, at least by the sea; shutter s and other woodwork ‘Por tmeir ion g reen’; the inter mediate block of the hotel was pink, the little logg ia ochre. On the l. of the main entrance, perhaps the best of Feibusch’s murals, s
Taken together, an element of Sur realism entered the designed landscape of the early s in front: retained Victor ian statues on the miniature parapet, steps curling round the Casino, a tr iple-arched logg ia built in , and myster ious steps and tunnels. On the quay, the ketch the Amis Réunis, wrecked in a stor m, has an afterlife reconstr ucted from the deck upwards.
. The Citadel, Batter y Square, and the path from the Grotto to the Lighthouse
Williams-Ellis’s resor t began with a g roup of about ten buildings of – on the crown of the cliff enclosing the village at its , linked to the hotel and the sea by a precar ious composition of steps Inspired by Por tofino and Capr i, these display a high deg ree of f antasy, at times approaching the treatment of buildings in Sur realist painting.
The shor t par t of this walk star ts by the side of B S . Here is T H , , of black stained boarding jettied out twice under an eaves line with contr ived wobbles. A little masonr y str ucture is attached, with a balcony with a coloured wooden figure of a saint preaching from a scroll, and a hang ing cut-out sign of a black sheep by Susan Williams-Ellis, . The archways, steps and other devices by which Toll House tur ns into the long side of the paved space and to the Round House are a tale in themselves. The highly ir regular B
, , has white-painted Kentish hor izontal boarding; C
R , , adjoining , began as garages and became a house in The tur n on the cliff behind is also managed with a timber building , P
, , which has the hor izontal windows of the s seaside On the seaward ter race a cast-concrete relief of Sculpture, a slightly Er ic-Gill-like work by Gilber t Bayes. A second little square lies beyond these buildings Placed on the high spot and treated with ever y contr ivance of age, the C
or Bell Tower, dated
. Thin like the Nor th Italian church tower s that inspired it, this has seven stages of sur pr isingly cor rect design – a quiet reminder that WilliamsEllis knew about architecture. The fir st four are of bare stone, the top three are plastered, with bells in the Serlian openings
on the fifth stage * The side is for med by P
,
. Tall laced windows on its upper floor f acing the sea with blue shutter s against pale red ochre plaster. On the side is W
H
, small but telling: a white stone cottage, hugg ing the g round like the West Wales type, but bent in the middle, and with a round exter nal Pembrokeshire chimney and a pillared, hipped-roofed veranda at the seaward end. It crouches on a crag , at the top of rough white steps and retaining walls.
Two fur ther houses, to the G
,
, painted in bleached colour s, is three-storeyed and square, with a tall aedicule r ising from its roof on which is a bronze seagull. The tall and nar row D
, –
, raised on arches over the final abyss, is long enough to be painted as two houses. Linking Dolphin and Gover nment House, a covered br idge, from whose parapet leans a ceramic figure of Shakespeare
The longer par t of this perambulation star ts above Batter y Square, at the path leading , via a reset slate archway from one of Madock’s toll gates, to the circular platfor m on the of the road with its G
, , beneath. Blue inter ior with nar row windows for the view; sea shells set into the concrete ceiling and stone walls From here a woodland path passes beneath the buildings just descr ibed, to connect with the steep picturesque descent by twisting steps to the quay; at the top a miniature ver sion of the Watch House logg ia A walkway leads to the or namented quay and steps made for the hotel, and via a tunnel to the long and level walk on the old ter race, passing covered seats or ig inally made from uptur ned clinker-built boats, to a fine coloured-up of Nelson on the axis. Exquisitely sited at the tur n of the stone revetting is the O
Four limewashed stages, closely evoking the tower in the early s model. Just beyond, a little sea dock and a house enlarged as W
, , par tly on arches over the path Towards the sea a miniature folly L
, c. : a metal white c ylinder, g reen cupola, and parapet walk on a stone plinth. The views on the way back (which connects by under pass with the Victor ian dr ive to the hotel) reveal Williams-Ellis’s skill in composing buildings and or nament together.
. The Piazza
The sunk centre of the village is sur rounded by extraordinar y buildings but is itself comparatively empty. Approximately
* The (unvisitable) inscr iption beside it deser ves quotation: ‘This tower, built in by Clough Williams-Ellis, architect and publican, embodies stones from the th centur y castle of his ancestor Gr uffydd ap Cynan, King of Nor th Wales, that stood on an eminence yards to the west. It was finally razed c . by Sir William Fotherg ill Cook, inventor of the Electr ic Teleg raph, “lest the r uins should become known and attract visitor s to the place” This th centur y affront to the th is thus piously redressed in the th ’
square, it is defined on the and by the descending dr ive, and on the by the straight axis to the porch of the Town Hall, perhaps the fir st Williams-Ellis pegged out here (in ; as the architect and his wife joked, it was a case of ‘the Early Curly and the Late Straight’). In this P is a rectangular pool with segmental ends, an echoing fountain, and two g ilded Bur mese dancing figures on Wyatt Ionic columns towards the .
Around the Piazza are three reconstr ucted buildings, postwar presents to the village Being of stone they blend with the outcropping rock above, together acting as a calm plinth to the r iot of new for m and colour being put in place on the skyline above The visual effects and cross-axes are also developed in highly significant ways, both here and in front of the Town Hall to the . Fir st, at the head of the Piazza, the C , re-erected , once fronting the bath house of Ar no’s Cour t, of Br istol. This was designed for William Reeve in the early s; Pevsner in called it a ‘char ming whim’ The front is a colonnade of slender shafted columns, with a Gothic fr ieze and a balustrade with pierced motifs. The centre of the whole composition moves forward gently The last bays l and r are solid and have doorways with four-centred heads. As re-erected the ogee dome on the raised centre is missing , and instead an attic wall with three vases stands behind, but the side bays now have small stone ogee domes which look or ig inal. It can be mounted as a viewing platfor m from the level of the dr ive behind it
To the , the G , –, more Williams-Ellis than old work. It has a logg ia of four unfluted Ionic columns salvaged from Samuel Wyatt’s Hooton Hall, Cheshire, – –other s are reused in the Piazza and elsewhere – with three of the f avour ite cast-iron mer maid panels (cf . the gazebo, p. ) used as a balustrade between The order stands on r usticated arches and car r ies an entablature, balustrade and impossibly attenuated vases. The building is dignified and cheerful in a Neo-Palladian way, with two miniature tier s of windows behind the g iant por tico, but the effect of solidity vanishes with the back wall f alling away in fragments either side. The logg ia doorway tur ns out to be level with the road behind, so that the passer-by moves theatr ically from one world to another in a single step.
To the is the G
P
, re-erected , or rather its rear porch with trefoil-headed doorway, where Williams-Ellis records his admiration for William Madocks of Por thmadog , ‘who loved this reg ion and strove mightily to increase its f ame and its prosper ity’. The pavilion was or ig inally par t of the transfor mation by Benjamin Gummow of Nerquis Hall, Flintshire, c Columns of four shafts; fr ieze with trefoiled panels breaking forward over them, car r ying ver y high pinnacles with crockets, obelisks and vases, between
which r un battlements r ising pedimentally over the centre –the last a tweak by Por tmeir ion’s architect.
To the is a pre-existing – axis, with a cross-axis to the Town Hall Coming up from below, the main axis crosses the road, passes through large Edwardian iron
dated
beside The Angel’s bow (see p. ), then past the B , , the arcaded logg ia built on top of the village electr icity substation; three arches by two, paterae between. On the axis, on a tall plinth, a bronze of Hercules in the pose of Atlas by the Edinburgh sculptor William Brodie, , brought here in . Below, a generous stairway on the line of the valley watercour se which descends only to a balustraded outlook point halfway down A little space follows the statue to the , with M , the for mer gardener’s cottage of the s with car ved bargeboards, g iven an elegant logg ia and other or nament in , and the dolphin of By the steps up to The Dolphin (see p. ), a of Fr ix from among the Saxon deities car ved by Rysbrack for Stowe, Bucks; a copy of the or ig inal, moved from Por tmeir ion to the Buckinghamshire Museum.
. The inner skyline and back dr ive, and the Gwyllt
Perhaps a quar ter of the village’s houses stand slightly away from the or ig inal g roupings, on the higher reg ister of the cliff or otherwise of the dr ive. Though visually integ rated with the earlier par ts, this ‘suburb’ acquired its own character with a need for more pr ivac y and car parking for residents as more day visitor s came.
Steep steps from opposite Batter y Square offer another little network of paths, converg ing on the viewpoint ter race of the accretive building called the P . Here in was reerected fir st a fragment of Nor man Shaw’s Dawpool, Cheshire, a shor t-lived house of –: a vast late Per p chimneypiece in red sandstone now painted white, having two arches below and, above, an or nate or iel lit only by slit windows WilliamsEllis wanted a dome for Por tmeir ion, so walls behind it on an octagonal plan followed two year s later ; finally the Pantheon was completed in , with a timber cupola (joiner Leslie Braund-Smith). Full-height angle pilaster s with unexpected pair ings of tall nar row windows and upr ight œils de bœuf hard against them The dome cover ing , or ig inally plywood painted g reen, has been replaced with real copper. Made as an object to look towards, it is too high a vantage point for the village’s own per spectives
To the is B
, , quite restrained, as is the low
of – behind the Pantheon, in effect a realization of Williams-Ellis’s unbuilt council houses for Workington, Cumbr ia, of twenty year s earlier. It seems to be a threestorey ter race but in f act is a single storey with a monopitch roof , its boiler chimney disguised by a g reen onion dome
blatantly stopped at deg rees It links to C
,
, an unusually large, prominent and four-square house in a style like that of Gover nment House (see above), which, it was hoped, might become a studio for Augustus John In front of Chantr y another Ionic
from Hooton, with a weather vane on top. At an angle to it behind, another house for a pr ivate tenant, Henr y Winch; called V
W
, this has a little classical dignity, belied as elsewhere in the final phase by a monopitch roof . Fur ther
,
A single storey with pilaster s, pediment and a mer maidparapet balcony, set on arches and filling the span of its little valley, like a model for a f ar g reater mansion. To its l., on the bluff closing the inland view, T
, named to celebrate Thomas Telford in his bicentenar y year. The backs of all these can be glimpsed from the second-per iod dr ive among trees This enter s the village through a
, the g randest entrance to the village and a work of uncharacter istic solidity. High main arch breaking through the architrave line of massive pilaster s; segment-headed upper tier with volutes resting on these, and pierced by a niche containing a Neoclassical wooden car yatid painted a lead colour Beside it, an evocative
and its architectural hedge with ter ms in the arches (one by Jonah Jones), and other or naments, including a filig ree-ironwork Chinoiser ie arch by one of the radiating paths which here enter the Gwyllt or wild wood. In the W
G
not f ar to the , arbour s and br idges, including F
, by Susan Williams-Ellis
,
m. . An ungainly castle-house of the s for David Williams, the solicitor who promoted a log ical plan for the enlargement of Penrhyndeudraeth nearby; whereas his own house, by an unknown architect, is f ascinatingly illog ical A decade earlier he for med a smaller villa on the site called Bron Er yr i, then added to it roughly in Lugar’s (and the local) castellated manner, so that it has a four-square keep with a high octagonal tower, entered by a por te cochère, a lower embattled block and a square tower, all in differ ing stonework. Large conser vator y, rebuilt when str ipped down and conver ted as a hotel by John Ricardo Pearce and Gr uffydd Pr ice, . The Victor ian garden layout sur vives, a project of by Clough Williams-Ellis not having been car r ied out. R H O S - Y- G WA L I A U
, by E. B. Fer rey. Disused. Decent lancet Gothic, in g reen stone with sandstone dressings and bellcote Cusped chancel lancets, and porch with column shafts.
On a spit of land between two streams, the church stands between Y H
, T-plan for mer National School,