Plynlimon House

Plynlimon House

A 3-storey, 3-window shop and house, built of red brick with freestone quoins, sill bands, plinth and window dressings. The slate roof has tiled cresting and red brick end stacks, with another stack to the right of centre. Each stack has stock brick neck bands. A stock brick eaves band and dentil cornice run across the front. Stone tablets on either side of the central first-floor window read "Plynlimon House AD 1894" in raised letters and numerals. The windows throughout are 4-pane sashes with architraves and cornices. The window serving the former house (now office) to the right of centre on the ground floor is larger but similar, with a glazing bar removed from the frosted lower sash. A square-headed carriage entry to the left features decorative ironwork panels at the top.

The tall and ornate central shop front contains a paired entrance shared with the house, set beneath a dentil cornice carried on paired consoles and panelled pilasters, with a panelled apron below the shop window. The shop window itself is a large 2-pane sash with an anthemion-patterned ironwork ventilation grille above, and a half-glazed shop door. The house entrance is a 6-panel door with fanlight and panelled reveals. Above both the shop and house doorways is cast-iron cresting and a coat of arms, probably added in 1901 after the coronation of Edward VII.

The rear elevation has mostly sash windows, though some have UPVC glazing. A short, slightly lower rear wing is integral with the main range. A 2-storey office building was added later and features a projecting bay window facing the passage for lighting the office. An even later single-storey extension attached to this was reportedly used as a bake house, comprising 2 units—one with a recessed doorway and the other opening directly onto the passage. Windows are small-pane casements and 4-pane sashes beneath segmental heads; doorways are boarded.

The passage leads to a back yard. On the left side of the passage is a former cutting room and a workers' mess room. The cutting room has a wall of glazed bricks facing the yard and is covered by a corrugated-iron roof. The 2-storey mess room likewise has a glazed brick lower storey, topped with a brick upper storey and a round-headed window set in a wide gable. Both the cutting room and mess room have 4-pane sash windows and boarded doors. Blockwork attached to the gable end was part of a former slaughter house.

The ground-floor former butcher's shop retains tiled walls and a relief-moulded plaster ceiling that also covers the cross beams. Metal racks set high on the side walls were used for hanging carcasses. At the rear stands a half-glazed timber booth formerly used by clerks, with a plain dado, five 2-pane sash windows with etched glass, a frieze of relief foliage above, and simple panelling. On the left side is a recess beneath an arch containing a hatch with a small 2-pane sash window providing access to the rear office. The booth is also half-glazed from the office side, incorporating a single door with etched glass. The office itself has the same relief-moulded ceiling as the shop and a floor of red and black tiles.

Access to the shop from the passage is via 2 doorways. One features double glazed doors with lower fielded panels beneath a pediment in a small-pane glazed surround. The other is a pair of half-glazed double doors, plainer in style (boarded up on the passage side at the time of inspection in November 2020). The cutting room was updated in the 1970s with full-height wall tiling and fridges at the rear.

The cellar, reached by brick steps, formed part of the earlier Crown Inn. It is divided into 2 rooms with whitened rubble-stone walls and a cobbled floor. One room contains 2 L-shaped arrangements of slate slabs set on brick piers.