Bodnant

Bodnant is an elevated country house of mixed Old English and Jacobethan style, prominently sited to overlook formal terraces and celebrated gardens. The building comprises a nearly symmetrical three-storey south front of five bays with outer wings and projecting gabled bays, topped with slate roofs hipped to the wings. Black-and-white half-timbered gables rise above Jacobethan masonry with mullioned windows to the lower storeys. The gables feature patterned bargeboards, and tall polygonal chimney stacks with moulded cornices rise prominently throughout. The facades are detailed with dark bull-nosed facing stone and pale ashlar dressings, stugged long-and-short quoins, and moulded eaves cornices.

The centre three bays are articulated with two-light mullioned windows in moulded surrounds. The advanced ground floor features a striking seven-light canted bay flanked by segmental arches under hoodmoulds with finials, with deep-set flanking windows and an ashlar parapet containing a heraldic panel with moulded coping linked to a continuous sill band. At the rear of the left-hand roof sits a raised Gothic lantern at the junction with the main ridge.

The right-hand wing displays long five-light timber windows jettied on curved brackets above two-light mullioned windows. Attached to this wing is an exceptional conservatory of circa 1882, featuring a raised polygonal centre bay with original small-pane glazing and a domed clerestorey with ironwork cresting and finials. A lower hipped roof of a glazed fernery (now in fragile condition) continues further right; other glazed structures shown on the 1914 Ordnance Survey map have been demolished.

The left-hand wing has an advanced three-storey splayed form with arched braces to the top storey and windows matching the right wing. To its left, a two-storey flank of the west facade contains two-light mullioned windows at both levels.

The west facade of the main house rises three storeys with three bays and asymmetrical projecting outer bays. A recessed bay to the left connects to a polygonal tower with a steep conical slate roof, partially masked by the 1898 Drawing Room wing, which advances and continues left along the main terrace. A polygonal angle bay with mullioned windows surmounts a three-sided ashlar loggia with simple classical arches and French windows. A giant splayed ashlar bay (in Norman Shaw style oriel fashion) is capped by a square black-and-white attic with cusped bargeboards and arched braces at the angles. The far left gable features a crow-stepped bay beneath paired polygonal chimneys.

The north (entrance) front lies behind the main ranges. To the right stands the polygonal tower attached to the Drawing Room wing, followed by a set-back bay under a gabled upper floor and a three-storey porch with a corbelled four-light oriel window above a heavily moulded Gothic archway. To the left of the entrance porch is a further gabled bay with bellcote, projecting from the main south range with prominent rear attics. A low one-storey service range with gabled slate roof vents and a carriage entry to the yard under an open timber gabled roof extends north, terminating in a two-storey black-and-white service dwelling with spectacular paired ashlar stacks rising from a rusticated ground floor. Dwarf walls with Gothic-gabled gatepiers enclose the north end of the entrance court.

The Gothic north porch provides access to a longitudinal hall with Serliana-style openings leading to the staircase hall. The left-hand wall features a six-light mullioned window with heraldic glass commemorating family members who have served as Members of Parliament or held high government office. The hall extends rightward with panelled walls incorporating a fine eighteenth-century lugged chimney-piece in dark marble with pale marble head and draperies. An archway piercing the outer angle leads through to the great Drawing Room, added in 1898.

This exceptionally fine room contains re-used fittings from Shobdon Court in Herefordshire (demolished circa 1930) and a chimney-piece from Arlington Street in London. Mid-Georgian panelling with fluted Ionic pilasters and columns at the entrance and window bays is crowned by a pulvinated bay-leaf entablature over a dentil cornice. Rococo-style plasterwork with foliage and baskets decorates the ceiling borders. The west window bay plasterwork is dated 1934, marking a further design change. A pair of eighteenth-century doorcases under segmental pediments flank the marble chimney-piece on the inner wall, with a canted window bay opposite. A triangular pediment to the main entrance sits within a fluted columned screen, and a round-headed niche in the right wall contains an antique vase.

The staircase hall connects to the Dining Room, remodelled in 1911 with an extended window bay and panelled walls featuring a full-height chimney-piece with a portrait of Henry Pochin at the far end. To the right of the staircase hall, paired archways on reeded piers provide access: the right arch leads upward and the left arch opens into the Garden Room with a strapwork ceiling of 1911 and a canted timber chimney-piece within a lugged Georgian surround. Beyond lie the small Drawing Room and Library overlooking the terraced gardens. The conservatory interior retains its cross-plan, though the pool has been altered, and features patterned coloured glazing in the walls; the roof is supported by scrolled brackets and tie-rods with original threaded rods for vent operations.

A top-lit inner stair-hall with open handrails and turned balusters to the stairs and galleries features panelled dados to cantilevered flights with closed strings and Jacobethan newel posts at the first floor supporting an upper bedroom gallery. An octagonal glazed lantern with squinches surmounts a rectangular lightwell flanked by panelled waggon ceilings to the outer bays. The first-floor architectural features include the Turret Room, fitted with full-height eighteenth-century panelling and foliage drops to pilasters flanking a Georgian marble chimney-piece, and the Billiard Room. The latter, sited above the great Drawing Room, features Gothic pierced braces to its top lighting and a carved stone inglenook chimney-piece with Arabic tilework.