Portmeirion Town Hall

Portmeirion Town Hall

This is an imposing two-storey building of essentially 17th-century character, constructed of stuccoed brick and rubble with sandstone quoins, dressings and embellishments. The roof is tiled with slab-coped gable parapets and moulded stone eaves.

The building follows an F-shaped plan, with storeyed projecting wings to the centre and left (south-east) side. The centre wing features an early 17th-century Tudor-arched entrance with moulded label, accessed via eight steps ascending into the lower floor. Above this is a large mullioned and transomed window of five by three lights with three-light returns and leaded panes. A heraldic stone cartouche bearing the Puleston arms is positioned between the top of the entrance and this window, with additional heraldic plaques on both the left and right sides of the projecting bay. The ground floor has mullioned windows to both left and right. Both bays have Jacobean entrances to their returns, with a connecting path running laterally across.

On the left, extruded in the corner of the south-east bay, is a wide lateral chimney with an old brick upper section. At ground-floor level is an arched niche in the stack containing an oculus with an oval ironwork grille, originally from the Old Bank of England. On the first floor of the main elevation to the right is a projecting semi-circular stone balcony supported on scrolled brackets with a slightly convex iron balustrade. A small arched entrance with multi-pane glazed door leads onto it. Beyond this, on the far right, is an iron hanging sign with a painted shield.

The south-east projecting bay has a window similar to that at the centre, with an arched opening underneath fitted with chevron-boarded doors. Between the floors are three open rectangular lights, the centre one featuring a Jacobean strapwork surround and a decorative iron hanging sign above. The south-east and north-west gable ends have similar large transmullioned windows each of nine by three lights; the latter has a square louvred light above. The south-east bay has a small hipped roof of red pantiles. The central bay is surmounted by a stone balustrade. Behind this, completing the composition, is a low square tower with a round arched French window to the front and a glazed oculus above. The tower is topped by a shaped tiled roof terminating in a white square lantern surmounted by a copper crown and ball, with their base formed from an up-turned copper wash boiler.

Adjoining the south-east gable end, stepped down and set back, is a single-storey modern extension with rendered elevations and a slate roof. This has small-pane French doors to the right and three similar tall windows to the left of its main east elevation. This block inter-communicates with the upper floor of the main building and faces a balustraded terrace on the east side.

Adjoining the main block at the north-west corner, and partly overlapping it to the rear, is the cafeteria building. This is a long single-storey block raised up on a balustraded terrace with sweeping ramped access points to the left and right. The rendered main road-facing facade has five large arches; the outer ones are glazed entrances whilst the remainder are windows, all with small-pane glazing and rusticated stucco surrounds with decorative keystones.

The main upper floor contains a lobby with old parquet flooring that gives onto the Hercules Hall via an arched central entrance with a moulded oak archivolt and fluted key. The doors are four-panel doubles with panelled soffit and splays, all fielded. The Hercules Hall is a large L-shaped barrel-vaulted chamber with a large transmullioned window occupying the majority of the end wall; a similar glazed bay leads off to the left to produce the L-plan. Large-field oak panelling dating to around 1690 features bolection moulding with dentilated and heavily-moulded cornice. Opposite the projecting bay on the right wall is an entrance similar to the main doorway. Both have flanking fluted Corinthian pilasters to their inner faces, though the former is missing its volutes. On the opposite wall is a fireplace with similar flanking pilasters and a low rectangular sandstone surround. Above is a Jacobean plasterwork overmantel depicting a female deity or personification. The fine vaulted ceiling features relief plasterwork scenes depicting the Labours of Hercules and the Signs of the Zodiac. The contemporary segmental friezes at the chamber's ends depict a hunting scene and, above the entrance, four female Virtues and Vices.

Beyond the Hercules Hall is a narrow gallery linking the cafeteria block with the south-west block. The latter contains a small hall with a plain canted ceiling. Its walls are panelled with large-field mid-19th-century oak panelling, formerly from the dining room at Castell Deudraeth. This features heavily-moulded architraves, fielded panels and thin moulded cornice, with a depressed-arched buffet niche to the rear wall and outer flanking doorways. These doors are four-panel design incorporating four 16th-century Renaissance relief panels in their lower sections, probably of French origin.