8 Ffrydan Road

8 Ffrydan Road is part of a three-storey terrace of nine late Victorian townhouses (numbers 4–20 Ffrydan Road, even), built around 1890, probably in two phases. The terrace does not appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1888 but is present on the second edition of 1901 (surveyed 1899). It was built as a speculative development and reflects the new prosperity and optimism brought to Bala and other rural market towns by the arrival of the railway in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. The materials used—engineering brick and stock brick—were clearly brought in by rail. The terrace exemplifies the shift in the second half of the nineteenth century from an indigenous vernacular building tradition dependent on local materials to a more homogenised, geographically non-specific speculative architecture based on standardised materials and design.

The building is constructed of dark grey engineering brick and yellow stock brick with yellow, grey and red brick detailing. It has a continuous slate roof with a tiled ridge and five chimneys, all with pots; the chimney at the far left (number 6) is rendered.

The terrace divides into two distinct stylistic parts. The left half (numbers 4–12) has a facade of engineering bricks with stock and red brick detailing to windows and in the form of decorative banding. It comprises two reflected pairs of units with an additional unit (number 12) at the end. Each unit is of two bays, with entrances paired with the neighbouring unit except at the end. All have full-height canted bay windows with simple decorative applied timber framing, cusped bargeboards and decorative wooden finials to shallow gables, and plain Victorian cross-windows (modern replacements at number 12). Numbers 4 and 6 on the left have narrow round-arched entrances with 4-panel doors and plain overlights, with decorative arched niches above the blind first floor. The remaining entrances are broader with segmental heads, 4-panel doors with narrow flanking glazed panels and plain overlights.

The right-hand part (numbers 14–20) is of yellow stock brick with more simplified detailing in engineering brick. It comprises two reflected pairs with paired central and outer entrances. All except number 18 (centre right) have narrow segmentally-arched openings with 4-panel doors and plain overlights; number 18 has a broader segmentally-arched entrance with a tripartite door and glazed panel arrangement. Each unit has a two-storey canted bay with slated middle and roof, though the roofs to numbers 14 and 16 on the left have been renewed (possibly in lead). Plain Victorian 4-pane sashes are found throughout.

The interior was not inspected at the time of survey.