George Hostel, Normal College

The George Hostel, part of Normal College, is a building dating primarily from the 18th and 19th centuries, situated overlooking the Menai Straits, although the main entrance is on the southeast side. The exterior is rendered with pebbledash, covered by slate roofs, and features cement-rendered chimney stacks.

The asymmetrical long garden front presents a two-storey and attic configuration with a 4+6 window arrangement to the left, in a Georgian style. The left end features an 18th-century section with a hipped roof and plinth, highlighted by a broad splayed three-window bay. To its right is a later Georgian section, incorporating a lower splayed three-window bay. Dormers with flat roofs are equipped with paired horned sash windows, mainly featuring 12-pane sashes. The Victorian section is set back further to the right, and a stairwell range overlaps the rear of the later Georgian part, showcasing wide bracket eaves, a stone bracket cornice, and freestone banding. This Victorian section is three-storeys high with a 7+3 window front, including a semi-octagonal three-window corner block and an advanced and splayed bay centrally within the seven-window part. The sash windows feature arched, mostly paired, first-floor windows with keystones, bracket cills, and marginal glazing bars to the corner block, alongside panelled aprons on the left. Smaller sash windows with marginal glazing bars below are also present, with stone bracket cills. The corner block has chimney stacks set against gabled cross roofs.

The southeast side exhibits similar detailing and glazing to the Victorian section, with the corner block slightly set back on the left end, alongside external fire stairs and a single-storey hipped roof extension featuring a four-panel door. A taller stairwell bay is positioned at the right end, accompanied by a single-storey entrance extension with a tall hipped roof and a later ashlar porch with a tripartite entrance, which shows possible influence from Gilbert Scott. The porch features foliated capitals and cornices, stilted segmental arches under a continuous hoodmould, tympani over outer openings, cylindrical piers with annulettes, and panelled double doors. Sixteen-pane sashes are found at the rear of the later Georgian part, and similar windows are present on the rear of the 18th-century section. Various extensions and cross ranges are located at the right end, including one with a louvred attic.

The northeast side, six windows wide and also two storeys and attic, displays similar Georgian detailing to that on the garden front, with a splayed bay beside the entrance. A small first-floor sash window projects at the left end, linking with a range set at right angles.

The Victorian porch leads to a descending flight of steps, featuring Gothic capitals to the arch at the base, opening onto the stairwell/entrance hall. The staircase is characterised by an ornate cast iron balustrade and turned newel ends, with a gate at the half landing where a branch staircase leads off behind a tripartite screen. The Library rooms are accessed along a corridor with arched openings, two of which are heavily moulded and have panelled reveals. The sloping site has resulted in a complex layout.