Pencadlys Gwynedd

Pencadlys, Gwynedd

A council headquarters of substantial footprint that respects the medieval street grid and incorporates several much older buildings within its structure. The complex comprises blocks ranging from three to five storeys with stepped facades and complexly jointed hipped roofs. Street-level pedestrian arcades converge on a central open-air square courtyard that links Shirehall Street and Castle Street.

The architecture draws on a mixture of materials combining local vernacular traditions with modernist principles. Local stone forms the plinth and arcade piers in the central section, rising as high as the first floor where the archways span two storeys. Round concrete columns and steel pilotis support the arcades and balconies. Cream stucco rises above the stonework, with uPVC windows framed by raised contrasting render. Ribbon windows to the upper floors sit beneath projecting timber eaves. Purple slate roofs incorporate rooflights.

The principal range curves gently up the west side of Shirehall Street towards the castle, comprising three bulky tower-like forms linked by longer, lower ranges that echo defensive architecture, though subverted by recessed or absent ground floors with colonnades open to pedestrians along most of the length. Near High Street, a wall with a double-storey arch incorporates a double door into a service courtyard, with an exterior fire escape passing through the open arch above. The building proper begins with a long three-storey block containing four low and wide arches that incorporate basement windows, with paired and single windows above and continuous glazing immediately beneath the eaves. This is followed by a four-storey tower-like block with a timbered upper floor set back beneath a hipped roof carried on projecting timber corner posts, crowned with a finial bearing eagles and dated MCMLXXXIII (1983) in Roman numerals. Windows vary between single, paired and triple lights. A three-storey middle range has a ground floor open to the pedestrian courtyard beyond through five arches; the three to the right rise to first-floor height and incorporate first-floor office windows, with continuous fenestration immediately below the overhanging eaves. The next four-storey block projects outward from first-floor height on four massive corbels. A shield-shaped window on the first floor displays stained glass bearing the coat of arms of the County of Gwynedd, incorporating the Merionethshire goat and three dragons representing Caernarfonshire and Anglesey. Below this, a colonnade of eight arches on concrete pillars begins, continuing up the street under a three-storey link section with paired first-floor windows and continuous fenestration beneath eaves incorporating a timbered oriel. At the southern end of Shirehall Street stands Madog's Tower, directly opposite the castle walls and named for Madog ap Llywelyn, the putative Prince of Wales who seized and burnt the castle in 1294. Madog's Tower features a bonnet roof with finial and crown, a timbered upper storey projecting outwards and supported on stone corbels, incorporating an asymmetrical oriel window across the corner. Windows are irregularly placed and sized, framed in stone, and a large arch frames a painted mural of three of the town's Roman eagles below a crown. The base should open to the colonnade beyond but has been gated. Where the tower joins No.2 Castle Ditch, a single arrow loop at street level faces the many arrow loops of Caernarfon Castle opposite.

The arcade connecting Shirehall Street to the inner square courtyard has a timber ceiling and projecting rounded steps rising to the original main entrance (now staff entrance only), crowned with a timber luminary inscribed 'Oed Crist MCMLXXXIII'. On the opposite side of this archway within the inner square stands a slate memorial plaque bearing a portrait of Dewi-Prys Thomas with an englyn (praise poem) in Welsh. The north side of the inner courtyard rises four storeys with a projecting balcony on paired steel pilotis to a recessed first floor, a projecting second floor faced with roof slates below a ribbon window, and a recessed upper floor with ribbon window between the principal and secondary roofs. This treatment continues along the west side of the square, mirroring the aspect of Shirehall Street. Slate plaques in the south-west corner record the former location of the Brunswick Ironworks. The south and east sides of the courtyard are three storeys, with a small first-floor balcony in the south-east corner and a ground-level arcade passage through to Castle Street in the north-east corner.

A service courtyard to the north has a gated entrance on High Street and slopes downwards, so that the rear of the range behind the staff entrance presents as five storeys, with its basement and ground-floor windows set within two-storey arches below two projecting storeys above. A secondary slate roof projects below the upper-storey ribbon window.

A shorter range along the west side of Castle Street is framed by the Masonic Hall to the left and No.12 Castle Street to the right. The left-side block is three storeys with a recessed glazed ground floor containing a pedestrian colonnade of five arches with concrete columns and slate benches at the upper ends. The detailing of the upper storeys matches those of Shirehall Street, with single and paired windows and continuous glazing beneath the eaves. The taller right-side block is four storeys, with a tall stone belfry on its left-side gable. A three-bay colonnade rises through two storeys, open at street level to the modern public entrance of 'Siop Gwynedd' (originally a staff canteen). Office windows occupy the upper halves of these arches, with the right-side arch featuring a projecting timber and iron balcony inscribed 'Ll II 1282 1982' with a crown, commemorating Llywelyn II, Prince of Wales, who died in 1282.

The interior retains an original timber and glass reception kiosk in the foyer on the north side of the inner courtyard, with the two principal stair and lift shafts on either side. Axial planned office space in each wing features central corridors with rooms to either side, largely retaining the original layout with demountable partitions, doors and other fittings. The interiors of the older buildings at 2 Castle Ditch and 10–12 Castle Street have been modernised and incorporated into the offices.