Llanelly House

Llanelly House comprises Nos 2 and 4 and Nos 20, 22 and 24 Vaughan Street, Bridge Street (South side). It is a stuccoed building over rubble stone with a low-pitched slate roof behind a parapet, dating to the early 18th century.

The main facade is three storeys tall with seven bays, featuring three forward-projecting breaks arranged in a 1-2-1-2-1 pattern. The upper floors remain very little altered. The upper storeys are lit by small-paned long sashes with exposed boxes, some still original: 18-pane sashes to the first floor and 24-pane sashes to the top floor, with oblong blank panels above. The parapet is finished with painted stone moulded coping and seven ornate stone urns, the central two being more elaborate. The three projected bays have very ornate painted timber carved modillion cornices below the second floor sills.

Rendered stacks stand to the left and centre; formerly a third stack existed to the right, with evidence of originally having been of red brick and arcaded. Two symmetrically placed lead downpipes with rainwater heads of exceptional quality fix to the facade, bearing a 1714 date beneath the heads. The pipe to the left is complete; that to the right survives except to the ground floor.

The ground floor has been considerably rearranged. A stone string course survives over the first three bays and the openings remain in their original positions, but 20th-century plate glass windows with moulded stucco surrounds fill the first two bays, probably 19th century in origin. A modern door with overlight in plain timber architrave occupies the third bay. The centre bay has an off-centre 18-pane sash; to the right is a tall door with fielded panels and glazed top panel, not aligned with the window above. The last two bays have a late 19th-century glass shopwindow of two panes with slim column shafts. The final four bays are framed in a late 19th-century applied shopfront of fluted Corinthian pilasters at each end and a long entablature. The facade is even across these four bays; the recession of the fifth and sixth bays has been lost in the alterations. The door has probably been moved from the centre bay position and may be original, though altered in its top panel.

The west end wall has a parapet ramped up to the centre with corner urns. It displays two 15-pane upper windows, one similar to the first floor left and one blank to the right, plus a ground floor late 19th-century shopfront matching that on the main front. A matching lead rainwater head and pipe are present.

Nos 20 and 22 Vaughan Street form the former rear wing of Llanelly House, projecting slightly forward of the main house's end wall. This section is two storeys, stuccoed with a slate roof, a brick south end stack and a brick stack on the rear east roof. Four original 15-pane large sashes with stone sills light the first floor. The ground floor has been wholly altered by circa 1980 with a double shopfront in polished black and grey stone cladding and metal-framed windows.

Interior

Despite years of neglect, Llanelly House retains very extensive areas of original panelling, extending over almost the entire first floor, including the Vaughan Street wing. The panelling consists of tall fielded panels over a moulded dado rail with fielded panels below; fielded panelling also lines the window seats throughout. Simple moulded cornices trim the rooms. The main first floor front room, spanning four bays, has complete panelling but later 18th-century fireplaces. The south fireplace wall has fluted pilasters.

The first floor corridor features three fine panelled and moulded arches with fluted pilasters, panelled spandrels, keystones and cornices. The wide stair hall, built in the angle behind the two ranges, has a rich modillion cornice in timber and plaster. A second floor gallery retains original bobbin-turned balusters, though the open-well main stair itself appears to be of later date. A fine moulded and panelled arched doorway on the east side of the half-landing appears original, as does a similarly detailed but narrow viewing archway on the west wall, now blanked off behind a bobbin-turned balustrade.

The Vaughan Street wing contains one small panelled room with one window to Vaughan Street and three painted grisaille over-door panels, and one larger room to the south with two windows, fully panelled. The original south wall fireplace features a pulvinated laurel-leaf frieze. Panelled doors lead to a recessed cupboard to the right. A later staircase in the south east angle descends to the ground floor. Behind the smaller panelled room is a stair to the attic, not inspected.

Ground floors are more fragmentary but retain a considerable amount of panelling. In the main range, the left room appears to have the most panelling surviving, hidden behind modern boxing. A painted overmantel reveals an idealised coastal scene with classical temples and a British fleet. A moulded plaster ceiling was accidentally destroyed in 1990. The passage in the third bay is plain. The remaining four bays, presumably the original entrance hall and large north west room, form a single shop space with original panelling on the east wall and one moulded and panelled archway on the east wall adjoining a similar south wall archway leading through to the stair hall. Ceilings are divided into panels by plastered beams, some with probably original simple decoration to the panels. Further panelling and a large fireplace survive in No 22 Vaughan Street, boxed in.

The building requires further historic and archaeological investigation but appears internally to contain, to a remarkable extent, the original fittings of a major early 18th-century house.