20 Ffrydan Road

Nos 4-20 Ffrydan Road (even)

This is a three-storey terrace of nine late Victorian townhouses, probably built in two phases around 1890 as a speculative development. 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). Its construction 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 19th century. The materials used—engineering bricks and stock bricks—were clearly brought in by rail, demonstrating the shift in the second half of the 19th century from indigenous vernacular building traditions dependent on local materials to more homogenised, geographically non-specific speculative architecture employing standardised materials and design.

The terrace is built of dark grey engineering brick and yellow stock brick with yellow, grey and red brick detailing. It has a continuous slate roof with tiled ridge and five chimneys, all with pots; the chimney to the far left (no 6) is rendered.

The building divides into two distinct stylistic parts. The left half (nos 4-12) has a facade of engineering brick with stock and red brick detailing to windows and in the form of decorative banding. The right-hand part (nos 14-20) is of yellow stock brick with more simplified detailing in engineering brick.

The left half comprises two reflected pairs of units with an extra unit (no 12) at the end on the right. Each unit is of two bays, with its entrance paired with its neighbour (except the end one). 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 to no 12). Nos 4 and 6 have narrow round-arched entrances with 4-panel doors and plain overlights, with a decorative arched niche to a blind first floor above. The remaining entrances are broader with segmental heads, 4-panel doors with narrow flanking glazed panels and plain overlights.

The right-hand part consists of two reflected pairs with paired central and outer entrances. All except no 18 (centre right) have narrow segmentally-arched openings with 4-panel doors and plain overlights; no 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 nos 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.