Brynglas House

Brynglas House is a classical mansion of two storeys, originally finished in stucco with ashlar dressings and now entirely painted. It is roofed in Welsh slate with a very shallow pitched hipped design and a central narrow rectangular chimney stack, most visible above the east elevation.

The south-facing entrance frontage features a central canted bay with windows to each face, flanked on both sides by a single window range. Raised end pilasters, a corniced parapet and platband separate the storeys. A central flat-roofed portico precedes a round-arched moulded doorway with an entablature, slender Ionic columns and rear pilasters. A wide single-storey ground floor bay projects to the left. The original glazing comprised 12-pane sashes with slender glazing bars and narrow sills, though some windows have been altered.

The east-facing garden frontage is extensive. A central projecting 6-window range features three 12-pane windows above two wide canted ground floor bays containing large sash windows, with the centre being tripartite; some glazing bars have been lost. The bays are separated by a narrow round-arched niche. At each end are bowed 3-window ranges with large first floor 12-pane sashes and long full-height ground floor 15-pane sashes. End pilasters, platband, shallow roof cornice and parapet complete the design. The north-facing elevation has a similar 3-window range of large sashes.

Despite later institutional use, the interior retains a range of 19th-century fittings and furnishings. These include shutters to almost all windows, panelled reveals, door surrounds with paterae, decorative plasterwork and marble fireplaces throughout.

The five-sided porch features an encaustic tiled floor. The glazed lobby entrance has decorative plasterwork with side pilasters, egg and dart cornice, narrow Ionic scrolls, acanthus leaf cove and anthemion cornice to the ceiling. The main hall displays a wider coloured range of decorative floor tiles with similar plasterwork, and piers with narrow capitals. A corridor lined with heavy moulded bracketed plaster arches provides access to the main reception rooms facing the garden; panelled cupboards line the inner rear wall.

The former library has front and garden elevations with a decorative plasterwork cornice, panelled reveals and shutters to the long windows of the bowed garden wall. The former morning room (Room 1A) on the other side of the hall features a bay window to the front and a door to a former conservatory to the side, with some modest decorative plasterwork. The former music room (Room 2) contains an elaborate and delicate gilded and painted wooden chimney-piece incorporating mirrors and resting on a white heavily carved marble fireplace. The painted decoration here and on the ceiling derives from Roman classical motifs popular in the late 18th to early 19th-century Pompeian style, with a 3-banded ceiling cornice of classical motifs. The window bay recess is framed by fluted columns with Ionic capitals and pilasters; a low panelled dado and entablature sit over the door. The former dining room, now a coffee bar, has an elaborate heavily carved brown and grey marble fireplace incorporating pre-Raphaelite style tiles, a heavy billet-moulded cornice and heavy brackets to the bay window recess. The former butler's pantry is Room 3 to the rear. Room 4 at the end, the former billiard room, has two frontages and sits at a lower level, with a former dressing room adjacent.

An open well staircase of dark wood with twisted balusters and decorative treads rises to a landing newel beneath an arcade of three round-headed arches and round columns with shallow capitals and matching cornice. A tall round-arched staircase window with fluted surround and brackets and millennium glazing illuminates the stair. The main first floor rooms lead from the L-shaped landing and corridor. These have less elaborately moulded plasterwork and mainly plain pale marble classical-style fireplaces, with smaller former service rooms opening from the rear passage.