Powys County Council Offices

Powys County Council Offices

This building comprises two main ranges unified by a coherent Neo-Georgian style. The advanced range to the right is the original office block with the first phase of extension; at right-angles and set back is the main extension of 1959, a long office range with the council chamber housed in a rear wing. The architectural vocabulary is consistent in scale and detail, featuring small-paned sash windows, brick plinth, overhanging eaves, and white-painted cornice.

The entrance front dates from 1927 and is two storeys high. It forms a symmetrical 7-window range, centred on a slightly advanced entrance bay emphasised by a raised parapet with urn finials. The doorway has a stone architrave, with the window above advanced in a stone panel. All windows are 12-pane sashes; those to the ground floor have rubbed brick heads with stone voussoirs and raised brick aprons. Stripped-down brick pilasters stand at the angles. The return elevations to the sides are three windows deep. The right return has a single window to the ground floor and a central chimney with a pedimented base interrupting the eaves cornice.

The long rear wing comprises two sections either side of an advanced pavilion facing north-west. It displays similar window detail, with tripartite sashes flanking paired windows along its inner length, and a single tripartite window with three grouped windows beyond the pavilion. The pavilion has a hipped roof and secondary entrance in a brick porch flanked by narrow sash windows. The front of this range includes similar detailing with tripartite sash windows and a corresponding pavilion wing, which has a boldly pedimented gable and a terracotta architrave with paired pilasters surrounding a ground-floor window, presumably intended as a feature visible from the open ground beyond.

A secondary wing comprises an advanced 5-bay block forming the entrance to the council suite. This is linked to the earlier wing by a long 8-window range, articulated by differential window spacing, with a winder bay to the left of centre. This bay has a full-height mullioned and transomed French window to the ground floor and a winder sash window above. A secondary entrance with stone architrave is positioned towards the right. Window detail throughout remains consistent: small-paned sashes with rubbed brick heads and voussoirs to ground-floor windows. The council suite is higher in elevation, with stripped-down brick pilasters providing emphasis. Its central entrance features an ornate stone architrave with a segmentally arched doorway and scrolled blocks surmounting the pilasters. The window above sits within a pedimented stone panel. Narrower windows flank the doorway; windows on both floors have rubbed brick heads and stone voussoirs. The council chamber occupies the rear wing, lit by three high-set tripartite windows immediately below the eaves. Its hipped roof sweeps down low over a withdrawing room at the rear, which has a continuous band of windows.

The interior of the original block centres on a central entrance lobby leading to a long spinal corridor with simple classical detailing comprising plaster cornices and architraves. Original joinery survives, including 2-panelled doorways. A staircase offset to the rear of the frontage block ascends to the original chief executive's office above the entrance. The staircase displays typical 1920s metalwork detail with rectangular open panels and diagonal braces. The office lobby has a shallow segmental archway from the corridor, echoed by a shallow panel opposite. The office itself retains a dado rail, wall panelling, and frieze.

The rear range contains a council suite with a wide stair hall and double return stairway swept over paired entrances to the council chamber. The staircase features scrolled and twisted metal-work balusters, an offset newel, and a swept rail. At the top of the central flight, an alcove displays a painting of the county arms and an emblem of a swan above a semi-abstract tree. The council chamber appears to retain original seating.