Former Glamorgan County Hall

Former Glamorgan County Hall

This is a major Beaux-Arts classical building executed in Portland stone, featuring Greek details on the front elevation and palazzo idiom to the rear. The principal facade presents one storey with a continuous entablature and attic storey, with advanced outer bays. A wide flight of granite steps leads to a broad five-bay portico of coupled giant Corinthian columns, modelled on those of St Paul's Cathedral. The entrance wall is deeply recessed, with a doorway having an architrave and sliding bronze doors, flanked on each side by windows. Mezzanine windows feature metal glazing. Above the portico runs a balustraded parapet with windows behind it.

The main steps are flanked at podium level by monumental sculptural groups by Albert Hodge. To the left, representing mining, is Minerva and a female figure receiving an offering of coal from heroic miners. To the right, representing navigation, is Neptune in a chariot drawn by seahorses. At the top of the steps stand two stone obelisks bearing bronze lamps. On either side of the portico, projecting pilastered end pavilions contain a single bay with a window and balcony, and relief obelisks to the attic storey. Against each return is a single-storey entrance loggia with arches and iron gates to the front, tripartite arched openings to the sides, paterae to the spandrels, a balustrade with lion balusters, and iron grilles to windows above.

The side elevations feature, towards the rear, arched openings with relief heads to the keystones, two-level windows and a balcony. The east elevation has six windows and the west elevation has three windows. The rear elevation contains nine windows across four storeys—comprising basement, two storeys, and an attic above a deep cornice. A steeply pitched green slate roof is surmounted by Portland stone chimneys with lion head reliefs. The attic and upper-floor windows are squarish; the main-floor rectangular windows have bracketed hoods, with the central window emphasized by a shallow bay containing trophy and obelisk details above. This floor features a balcony running the full width of the facade, supported on deep paired scroll brackets over the basement with segmentally-headed windows and a broader central doorway. At each end of the rear elevation stands a wing wall with an archway and iron gates, and statues of cherubs by Arthur Broadbent.

A 1932 extension in sympathetic style and materials extends to the southwest, to the rear of the University Registry, and is connected to the main building by a bridge. This extension presents a simplified version of the rear elevation style of the main building. It comprises three storeys over a rusticated basement with banded quoins and a deep cornice, and features small-pane metal glazing. Its principal elevation faces North Road and contains twelve windows, with a central archway to an inner courtyard having stepped voussoirs, a glazed tympanum, and decorative iron gates. On the ground floor, the second and eleventh windows have bracketed pediments and shallow balconies. The side elevations contain ten windows. The courtyard is faced with yellow brick. The rear of the east block was extended in the 1950s, with modern prefabricated infill offices added subsequently.

The interior features an entrance and council chamber in austere classical style, with committee rooms and principal offices in late 17th-century style. The entrance vestibule has a flat coffered ceiling and Doric pilasters. Steps rise to an apse with a doorway leading to a top-lit corridor with Doric columns enclosing a D-plan council chamber. Lavatories have marble block walling and terrazzo floors. The council chamber has smooth ashlar walls and a plaster vault, with lunette windows breaking into the vault. The rear wall features at upper level a trophy above two over-life-size Michelangelesque seated statues by Hodge—one representing a Bard with a book, the other a Druid with a harp—supported on segmental pedestals. A communication corridor with square windows connects to doorways with pediments and relief sculpture. The chamber retains its original integral wooden seating in classicising style, carved by George Alexander.

To the rear of the council chamber lies a suite of committee rooms in late 17th-century style, furnished with heavy stone chimney pieces and overmantels, heavy ceiling wreaths, and oak panelling. At the rear corners of the building are chairmen's offices in similar style. To each side of the entrance hall apse, stone stairs with stone balusters rise to a landing lit by arched windows with iron grilles. Corridors feature classicising doorcases and painted doors with fielded panels, generally with simple cornices, though the former chief executive's suite displays more elaborate detailing with marble fireplaces. Secondary staircases have wrought-iron rails.

The later 1932 extension block contains two committee rooms in late 17th-century style, a 1960s banquetting suite, and offices with 1930s and 1950s partitioning. Its staircases feature wrought-iron rails.