University College of Wales Old College Building

University College of Wales Old College Building

An asymmetrical and irregularly planned High Victorian eclectic building, Gothic inspired but stylistically very individual. The structure comprises 2, 3 and 4-storey ranges with basement levels, connected by taller stair towers. The main construction is dressed rubble masonry, with greyer ashlar used for the Ferguson range. The steep-pitched slate roofs feature swept eaves, and polygonal and cylindrical stone chimney stacks punctuate the design.

The north-east end presents a broad gable with a 5-light stepped lancet window on the 3rd floor above a lobed tripartite bow window extended to the left with a rounded corner tower. A dwarf gallery parapet sits over metal-frame windows with marble colonettes and various punched foil tracery heads. Three bays set back to the right feature a quatrefoil parapet and blind panelling to a tall chimney stack. An advanced lower 2-storey bay with a convex front to the 1st floor and a 5-light bow to the ground floor includes a Gothic door to the right; similar details appear in a 2-bay range set back further with steep attic gables and 2-storey bay windows stepped out to ground floor level. The front steps back to the right beyond a canopied niche; a splayed end features a foliage bracket cill.

A clustered cylindrical stack links with the Seddon room, an oval-shaped range derived from the apse of St Étienne at Caen. This curved range has a steep slate roof with end conical tourelles and a machicolated cornice. Grouped lancets light the 1st floor; ground floor windows sit flat in arched recesses with punched plate tracery tympani. A polygonal stair turret and angle porch to the right feature a pediment over the entrance. A 4-storey and basement block from 1896, with 2 and 3 window bays, is gabled and heavily glazed, taller to the left, with mostly square-framed small-pane mullioned windows of varied detail. A triple lancet window to the right gable end sits above a lower 2-storey range. A 9-bay range at the south-west end of the college originally had a timber-framed 1st floor before the fire. Venetian window-inspired tripartite glazing with continuous hoodmoulds and stepped cills characterise this section. The range terminates at the splayed south-west end with a Romantic Castle-type cylindrical tower topped by triple conical roofs over a machicolated cornice and three mosaic panels based on designs by C F A Voysey. The central panel depicts Archimedes; these panels were probably intended for a different academy.

The irregular south-west end facing King Street includes one curve-sided triangle window, a clustered chimney stack, and a gabled doorway. The elevation splays back to a large circular structure, apparently based on a medieval chapter house, with a tall corbelled chimney stack. The frontage steps back and forward to a narrow 5-storey range with a convex front and crenellated parapet. Linked ogee recesses appear to the 4th floor; the 2nd and 3rd floors are combined with heavily cusped windows showing the influence of late Spanish Gothic. A plain staircase range to the right links with a 4-storey main entrance range featuring wide overhanging eaves to a galleried top storey with cusped timber-frame windows. The advanced lower floors cant forward at the centre with a quatrefoil parapet and similar banding below trefoil-headed 3rd floor windows. The 1st and ground floors are dominated by an exceptional triangular porte-cochère, offset to the right, with tall south and east-facing gables. A parapet is carried to the front on a broad pier decorated with a lively castellated spirelet; shields in trefoil-headed recesses ornament the gables. A sexpartite vault rises within, framed by a cinquefoil over the tripartite entrance. A 6-storey curving stair turret to the right has a crenellated parapet and ogee machicolation, with a tall 2-light bar tracery window at the base flanked by canopied niches. A similar 7-storey winding stair turret stands nearby. A plainer 5-storey and attic gabled north-east range steps forward with cill bands; the 2nd and 3rd floors are combined in alternate bays. Modern structures adjoin the right-hand end between the Old College and Theological College.

The interior is similarly eclectic, centred on a long rectangular 3-storey quadrangle with a part-glazed barrel roof of 6 bays and pendant bosses. The quadrangle is galleried to the 2nd floor on the south-east side and 1st floor on the north-west side, with punched tracery to bracketed gallery fronts splayed across the corners. A multi-corbelled minstrel's gallery occupies the north-east end. Gothic doors and windows appear throughout, with a tripartite opening featuring marble piers leading to a cantilevered imperial staircase with muscular newel posts.

Beneath the minstrel's gallery stands a bronze statue on a Gothic pedestal of Thomas Edward Ellis A.S. by Goscombe John (1903); an unsigned similar statue of the Rt Hon Henry Austin, Baron Aberdare, first chancellor of the University College of Wales, stands at the opposite end. The main imperial staircase lies to the right of the main entrance, detailed in Gothic style with a quadripartite ribbed vault and tripartite screen to the top. A later broad open-well staircase occupies the south-west corner.

The staircases and quadrangle are reached via a corridor curving around the "0"-plan Seddon Room opposite the main entrance. This room has a rounded south-east side and an exterior north-west side with springers that suggest a vault was originally intended but now has a modern acoustic ceiling. A triple-arched arcade faces the entrance side, balanced by full-height windows opposite with small rose windows flanked by trefoils in the tympani. Splayed angles glazed to the north-west side feature additional decoration. French medieval-style fireplaces at each end have coned hoods with crenellated and dog-tooth cornices, marble columns with fleur-de-lys capitals, and iron canopies over the grates to the north-east end.