Wyeside Arts Centre

The Wyeside Arts Centre is an Italianate Gothic building dating from 1877. Its design is intended to evoke the appearance of Northern Italian town halls from the 13th or 14th centuries. The exterior is constructed of red tiles, grey stone, yellow and blue bricks, and bathstone dressings, with terracotta detailing. It features a red-tiled hipped roof with gablets, topped by a spirelet with a clock, which has undergone restorations. Machicolations are present at the eaves, made from stone and moulded yellow brick.

The long facade, facing Castle Street, has rounded corners at ground floor level, transitioning to square corners in yellow brick at the first floor, supported by large stone corbels. There is a seven-bay arcade with pointed arches of varying heights; the arches are generally hooded with yellow brick, except for the doorways. The doorways are located in the first, fourth (central), and seventh bays. The doorway on the left has a painted bathstone arch surround with crocketed decoration, displaying a coat of arms with a harp and the date 1877. The central bay provides access to the market hall and features a painted roundel of a bull above, which is a symbol of Builth. A smaller doorway is located to the east. The remaining bay spaces on the ground floor have been modernised with brick infill, incorporating round-headed windows and doors where shopfronts previously stood. The first-floor arches in these bays are now blind, having formerly been windows to assembly rooms. Three terracotta roundels depicting Beethoven, Shakespeare, and possibly Byron are incorporated into the facade.

To the west side, on the first floor, there are two large gothic arched windows beneath yellow brick hoodmoulds. Wooden tracery is present. The ground floor on the west side features a broad window and two blocked doorways constructed of blue brick, with stone springers and keystones. On the east side, the first floor has a small round window and on the ground floor, two small square-headed doorways.

The rear elevation incorporates a market hall range at a lower level, with three large round-headed archways filled with modern yellow and blue brick. Each archway has a pair of round-headed windows, with a circular window above. The wall above these arches is rendered and dates from the time of conversion, which also included a modern sloping roof.

The front centre doorway leads down to the market hall, which is heavily constructed of grey stone and contains bays for market stalls arranged beneath round-headed arches along three sides away from the river. A wall was raised on the north side during the conversion, and a modern roof was installed. The ground floor, at street level, was formerly shops. These have been converted with modern partitioning to create galleries and a restaurant. The first floor, previously an assembly room, is now a cinema. It retains a high barrel-vaulted wooden roof with trusses supported by Italianate Gothic shafts resting on corbels, with thin metal rods tying the trusses together.