Portmeirion: Architecture

Listed below are the buildings you'll find in Portmeirion: with a photograph, and guide information furnished by the excellent official Portmeirion website portmeirion-village.com. Next to each, you will see the words 'See in Second Village...'. Simply move your mouse pointer over this text to pop up a picture of the building as it appears in Second Village.

Hotel Portmeirion

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The main building of the hotel was built around 1850 (extended by Clough Williams-Ellis in 1926 & 1930; listed Grade II 1971) was the original mansion of Aber Iâ.and first described by Richard Richards in 1861 as "one of the most picturesque of all the summer residences to be found on the sea-coast of Wales."

When Clough discovered it in 1925 he was faced with dereliction and an overgrown wilderness. "I obviously had to use the old house on the sea's edge for something and, if I wanted a village, it would have to have an economic basis and the obvious thing seemed to be tourism. It was at Easter 1926, after less than a year's preparation, that the original old house, little altered, opened somewhat tentatively as an unlicensed hotel."

Hotel PortmeirionClough's first extension of the old house was drawn in October 1926. This tower-like wing added to the west of the old house rises close to the cliff face. The wing was originally limewashed with yellow, and its subtlety depends on the use of external window shutters painted in the green which became synonymous with the village. Clough added a new dining room in 1930. Instead of reproducing the Victorian style of the original structure, here Clough exploited a curved, highly glazed plan of clearly Modern concept. It opened at Easter 1931, as noted in an early edition of the guide book: "The big brand-new curvilinear restaurant on the sea-edge, opened a little doubtfully for Easter, was, by August, hopelessly inadequate for its dual purpose of serving both residents and day-visitors."

As Richard Haslam points out, with this addition Clough achieved two of his ideals: "a place which, because of its sheltered outlook over the sea and its airy position, calls for lightness of construction; and a space defined only by curves in its plan. It is made almost entirely of wood; the outer walls are mostly window, the simple joinery of its flat roof is shown on the drawing, and the columns are cut from sections of mast from a dismantled Porthmadog schooner."

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Town Hall

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The Town Hall (1937-38, listed Grade II* 1971), also known as Hercules Hall, was designed to house a Jacobean ceiling, panelling and mullioned windows salvaged from Emral in Flintshire. Fronting the Hall are a fine set of wrought iron gates dated 1908 between stucco piers topped by a cornice and urn (Listed Grade II). Emral Hall was one of the great houses of Wales, home to the Pulestons for 700 years. The first, Sir Roger, was lynched while trying raise taxes on behalf of Edward I. The last was thrown from his horse against Emral chapel which he had shamelessly converted into a kennel; he died insane in 1775.

Emral was a deep three-sided house within a moat, the central and oldest part (early C17th), containing the remarkable barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling depicting the labours of Hercules.

A few years before the Second World War Clough had been consulting with Harley Granville-Barker and Terence Gray of the Cambridge Festival Theatre about plans for a miniature opera-house that he though he might build when his eye happened to catch a sad obituary note in Country Life announcing the demolition of Emral Hall. "Aghast at the news...I rang up the National Trust... Too late and no money. Then the V & A Museum... no room. So I felt I must instantly do something about it myself: packed a bag, caught a train, and reached Emral just as the sale was starting...So far as the ballroom section was concerned, the ceiling came up first, and there being next to no bidding for so awkward and speculative a lot, it was knocked down to me for a derisory thirteen pounds. But then of course I had to buy all the rest of the room at any cost; the old leaded glass in its mullioned windows, its fire grate, its oak cornices and architraves - the lot. And committed that far, it was but prudent to buy a great deal more of the old house wherewith to contrive an apt new building in which to embed my reconstructed ballroom. Whence the somewhat hybrid aspect of what is now Portmeirion's Town Hall, an unabashed pastiche of venerable Jacobean bits and pieces adding interest and dignity, as I think, to an otherwise straightforward modern structure." Clough’s foreman joiner, R.O. Williams reinforced the ceiling from behind and, having numbered and sawn it into a hundred sections, lowered each one into straw lined crates. The high relief of the vaulted ceiling makes the hall acoustically excellent as such musicians as Sir Arthur Bliss, Gerald Moore, Yvonne Arnaud, Boyd Neel and Elena Gerhard have testified. The oval grille is from the Old Bank of England. The lantern is surmounted by an ornate copper crown on top of an upturned pig boiler. The Town Hall is Clough's single most substantial building at Portmeirion and one of his most successful.

A portrait sculpture by Jonah Jones stands at the foot of the hall stairs. It carries the inscription: "A tribute by one on behalf of the many who have shared his own pleasure in what has been here achieved." Jonah (above) also carved a corbel of Clough’s head on the Colonnade as well as slate plaques other applied and fixed carvings at Portmeirion. Of him Clough wrote: "Jonah Jones, a most versatile and sympathetic sculptor who is happily a neighbour and whose vigorous work I feel honoured to display".

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Castell Deudraeth

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It is an early Victorian castellated mansion built by David Williams, the first Liberal MP for Merioneth. Clough Williams-Ellis purchased the building and its grounds in 1931 in order to expand the Portmeirion estate and to give him a proper driveway from the main road. He used it as a hotel in the 1930s, then it became a prep school and at one time was made into exclusive apartments for the likes of the Oppenheimer family.

The building’s Baronial elements, borrowed from the Gothic and Tudor periods, create an impressive example of Victorian architecture at its most fantastical. Clough referred to the Castell as "the largest and most imposing single building on the Portmeirion estate".

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Belltower

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Battery (1927, listed Grade II 1971) was designed as "Block C" on a plan dated March 21st 1927. It is of eighteenth century Kentish character with three storeys, the ground floor stuccoed with one lunette window, above weatherboarded with wide eaves. It featured in an article on Portmeirion by E. Maxwell Fry in the Architects' Journal for June 20, 1928. Having mentioned the Watch House he described the Battery was "a severer house painted all in white [that] looked calmly out over the waters, as though oblivious to the tower now rising from its tangle of scaffold poles to eclipse the authority of the first born." The other cottages completed by this date were Angel and Neptune down on the village green. Clough justified the name Battery by having a couple of little cannons placed to guard its battlemented terrace. These were from Belan Fort, built on the Menai Straits to repel Napoleon's expected invasion. Battery is a self-catering cottage sleeping six people with one double, one twin and two single bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room and sitting room, two bathrooms and an outside terrace. Chart Room, on the ground floor directly below the Battery, was once a garage.

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Pantheon

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The Pantheon or Dome (1960-61, listed Grade II, 1971) is an octagonal building surmounted by a dome and central octagonal cupola. During the late 1950s Clough felt the village suffered from 'dome deficiency' and decided to remedy this. The foundation stone was laid by Earl Russell O.M. and the Pantheon or Dome was completed during 1961. For its ornate gothic porch he used a vast Norman Shaw fireplace of red Runcorn sandstone from Dawpool, Cheshire which he had acquired 20 years previously. This had been in situ in its present position since 1957, then known as The High Cloister. The Dome's supporting walls were built by April 1959 leaving only the actual dome itself. "'In the matter of the dome and its lantern," he wrote, "I just gave [Mr Braund-Smith, the master-joiner] the outside silhouette of what I wanted and left him to puzzle out its actual construction: a challenge met with an economy and elegance that is in itself a pleasure to behold." As the Dome reached completion and the ball was finally fixed on top of its lantern, Clough could be seen high up a ladder (he was nearing eighty at the time) laying on the gold leaf. The Pantheon with its dome and lantern is assumed by many to be a temple and Clough was often under pressure to make it over for such use but as his own position was an impartially yet firmly neutral one he foresaw its future as probably secular. Perhaps in part due to this refusal, the Church in Wales refused permission for Clough’s memorial plaque to hang in the old church in Llanfrothen. It is now respectfully displayed in the Pantheon. There are several other interesting items on show here such as the old tollgate sign and his model for the Chantry.

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Unicorn

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Unicorn comprises two bedrooms each with en suite bathroom and a central sitting room. The mermaid panel to the front of the balcony is one of around thirty that Clough got from the Seaman’s Home in Liverpool.

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Central Piaza

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The Piazza (1965, pool and fountain listed Grade II 1971) was built to replace an unsightly tennis court that had been there since the 1930s. Clough had originally made drawings for a central space called "The Piazza" in 1925 but that particular design was not executed. However in the early 1960s he was encouraged by his daughter Susan and her husband Euan to create the central piazza. It was pointed out that the tennis court could be resited in a less sensitive position close to the entrance to the village. His response with the fountain pool, Gloriette, Gothic Pavilion and Burmese dancers on Ionic columns is one of his master pieces. His first drawing for the Piazza is dated 1963 (bottom left) and includes two rows of cottages similar to Chantry Row and a tower. Although detailed drawings of the tower exist it was not built: only the Gloriette facing a shallow pond containing a fountain and steps between two Ionic columns down to the Gothic Pavilion were included. His plans had to be postponed for some time as he wanted to use seven Ionic Columns which he had acquired thirty years before but could not find. The Ionic columns are adorned with gilded Burmese dancing figures in the style associated with late 19th century court arts of Mandalay, marked by the flamboyant treatment of costume details, especially the exaggerated play of the flame motif. The Piazza was completed the year before Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner series was filmed at Portmeirion and in which it plays such a prominent part.

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Bristol Colonnade

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The Colonnade (built c. 1760, rebuilt here 1959, listed Grade II 1971) was opened by Earl Russell, O.M., on April 10th 1959. Its dedicatory inscription reads as follows: "This colonnade built circa 1760 by the Quaker copper smelter William Reeve, stood before his bathhouse at Arnos Court, Bristol. Damaged by bombs it had fallen to decay and although scheduled as an Ancient Monument, Her Majesty's Minister of Works approved its removal on condition that it should be here re-scheduled." The interior of the Bath House had ornate plasterwork by the Bristol plasterer Thomas Stocking but this already crumbling and could not be saved. Transporting some hundred tons of fragile and elaborately wrought masonry tow hundred miles by road was no light matter, but was as nothing to the feat of delicately dismembering at the sending end or the faultless reassembly of the jigsaw at this. A precise measured survey made by an architect at Bristol survives, showing every single stone, each numbered on the drawing as well as on itself. Clough's master mason, Mr William Davies, took over all the papers along with the stoneheaps and set about the resurrection. As Clough recalled, "First to last, in Bristol as well as at Portmeirion, it was almost entirely a matter of high masonic craft, for, having determined its site and fixed its levels, there was little more for me to do but look on, approve and very much admire."

Clough’s head adorns the Colonnade, made by Jonah Jones who recalls the occasion in his memoir of Clough (*): "At either end of the Colonnade, an ogee cupola is supported on two corbels. One of these was missing when the drivers off-loaded, so Clough asked me to carve one out of a blank in its place. He gave me very little time, as usual, and I carved, as I thought, a sketch portrait of Clough."

The figure of the angel holding a scroll that graces the Bristol colonnade is in the style of French or Netherlandish fifteenth-century sculpture.

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Toll House

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Toll House (1929; listed Grade II 1971) is of ancient character with oversailing upper storeys faced with weatherboarding. At the rear, seaward side, there is a lookout tower at the top floor level. Clough called Toll House "that black weather boarded thing, looking rather Norwegian." It was one of the first buildings built as part of a group around Battery Square. It is embellished with plaques, bells and signs including a wooden and painted statue of Saint Peter on a balcony with a small canopy above his head (it would have been bigger but for a mistake at the foundry but Clough thought St Peter would not mind). The bell was to summon the gatekeeper and the blue and white striped pole could be lowered to restrict access - in 1929 this was the outer limit of the village. Toll House is a self-catering cottage for six (one double, one twin, a single and an attic bedroom, kitchen, sitting / dining room and bathroom).

The most striking embellishment on the Toll House is Susan Williams-Ellis's sheep cut-out which Clough asked her to design for the Welsh Wool Shop. Clough's original half scale drawing dated March 1957 and Susan's finished full scale artwork have survived and are now in the Town Hall. She painted several murals for her father, most notably on the Salutation and on Lady's Lodge and a plaque on Neptune She designed many of the fabrics and carpets used in the village and all the pottery used at Portmeirion is by Susan.

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Salutation

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Salutation was originally the lodge and stable block at Aber Iâ (c. 1850, listed Grade II 1971) built between 1842 and 1858. Described in 1861 in Richard Richard's Pen and Ink Sketches as "the Lodge, with the stables adjoining, the latter being built with all the most modern improvements". The roof of fish scale slates was a feature of the C19 buildings here and can be seen on Mermaid and the Hotel. Salutation has the same twisted chimneys as the hotel also. Clough adapted this stable block "in a rather slapdash way" once he had completed Angel and Neptune. In 1966-67 he "Cloughed-up" the right hand gable in a style similar to a Dutch gable.

The building was first used as a cafe in 1931 when visitor numbers had overwhelmed the capacity of the hotel: "Despite the economic gloom" wrote Clough, "the season of 1931 proved that we had not gone too far or too fast, but quite embarrassingly, that we had under-estimated our growing popularity. The big brand-new curvilinear restaurant on the sea-edge, opened a little doubtfully for Easter, was, by August, hopelessly inadequate for its dual purpose of serving both residents and day-visitors... The Salutation serves the passing traveller either in its black and white marble-floored Salle...or else on one of its terraces, amongst clipped bay trees and flower urns beneath the shade of sycamores." As well as the Salutation Restaurant the building also housed the Ship Shop, established by Clough’s daughter Susan and her husband Euan which specialised in her Portmeirion Pottery (above left circa 1965) as indeed it still does. Susan designed and painted a colourful mural of vines and cupids with fountain and white doves on the courtyard side of this building which, having been painted over, was recreated in 1996 by artist Nigel Simmons. Above the shop are two double rooms and a suite.

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Arches

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Arches (1963-64, listed Grade II 1971) was first designed in July 1954 (called Upper Arches House) and revised in February 1956 (called The Arches). It is of Mediterranean village character and comprises three storeys and a dummy attic with arcaded ground floor of three round headed arches. It provided staff flats above three garage spaces. In 1965 the garages were converted into the Angel Arcade antiques shop run for many years by Sylvia Jones. The Angel Arcade mural was painted by Hans Feibusch. Upper Arches is now a self-catering flat for three people (one double, one singe, sitting room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom) and the ground floor is an Ice Cream Parlour with interior murals by Nigel Simmons. Close to the Arches is a column (bottom left) built of bricks topped with a classical nymph. This is known as the Williams-Ellis column.

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Battery

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Battery (1927, listed Grade II 1971) was designed as "Block C" on a plan dated March 21st 1927. It is of eighteenth century Kentish character with three storeys, the ground floor stuccoed with one lunette window, above weatherboarded with wide eaves. It featured in an article on Portmeirion by E. Maxwell Fry in the Architects' Journal for June 20, 1928. Having mentioned the Watch House he described the Battery was "a severer house painted all in white [that] looked calmly out over the waters, as though oblivious to the tower now rising from its tangle of scaffold poles to eclipse the authority of the first born." The other cottages completed by this date were Angel and Neptune down on the village green. Clough justified the name Battery by having a couple of little cannons placed to guard its battlemented terrace. These were from Belan Fort, built on the Menai Straits to repel Napoleon's expected invasion. Battery is a self-catering cottage sleeping six people with one double, one twin and two single bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room and sitting room, two bathrooms and an outside terrace. Chart Room, on the ground floor directly below the Battery, was once a garage.

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Bridge House

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Bridge House (1958; listed Grade II 1971) forms the second of Portmeirion’s two entrance gateways. A Classical building of early eighteenth century character the main facade faces south, its Rusticated podium pierced by a basket arch. It has Doric pilasters with cornice and coping topped by four tall urns. To the rear it has one large Venetian ogee arched window from Arnos Court with diamond panes. Bridge House is one of Clough's most successful second phase (1954 to 1976) constructions at Portmeirion. As with the Gate House, Clough fully exploited the existing terrain: the building rises on exposed brick arches from the living rock on both sides of the road. Clough described it as "a classical thing, meticulously detailed... known locally as Carlton House Terrace". This was is marked contrast to the arts and crafts style of neighbouring Toll House. His later works were not necessarily intended to match up with earlier structures, but rather to provide "piquant contrasts whereby both old and new would gain in interest. Thus, where I judged that I had perhaps a trifle overplayed the picturesque, I would pop in a bland facade of serene classical formality: for example, the village aspect of the Bridge House as seen beyond the shamelessly picturesque front of the black weather-boarded Toll House."

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Trinity

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Trinity (1933-34, listed Grade II 1971) was so named because Clough happened to have that worshipful institution's coat-of-arms in cast iron, brought from an island lighthouse keeper's quarters. Trinity provided accommodation on the first and second floors and garage parking for three cars on the ground floor to Trinity Yard. The garage was in due course converted into a shop (now called Pot Jam) but the irregular floor levels are a reminder of its previous use. Trinity faces the village centre over the fish pond and comprises two self-catering flats sleeping two people. Facing the pool beneath arched alcoves are marble busts of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll by Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770). Clough irreverently placed them on pedestals made from upturned petrol cans.

A National Benzole petrol pump (1926) was installed outside Neptune, embellished with an elegant early 19th Century pine figurehead. Petrol was not widely available and this was therefore an essential facility next to the lock-up garages. The original figurehead was stolen in 1983 and replaced by a copy made by artist Nigel Simmons from sketches by Susan Williams-Ellis. In 1996 the original turned up in the pages of Country Life and was duly recovered at considerable expense - it had been stolen so long ago the police declined to get involved. A dealer had bought it at auction for £720 and, being of sound principles, agreed to sell it back to Portmeirion for £1,300. It is now firmly secured to its pedestal.

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Round House

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The Round House (1959-60, listed Grade II, 1971) is one of a pair of Baroque shops linked by an overhead walkway. The concept of bow fronted gate house and archway was already present in the model of his 'ideal village'. In 1934 Clough rebuild Cornwell manor and village centre in Oxfordshire; the village hall he designed in 1938 (below right) bears similarity to the Round House. In 1966 Patrick McGoohan used the Round House as Number Six's residence in The Prisoner. The interiors were filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, Borehamwood. The interior of No. 6’s house was an exact replica of his London home which is seen in the first episode.

The Round House is of course too small to accommodate a spacious lounge, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen and this can come as a surprise to visitors who know it from the television series. The building now houses Number Six, the Prisoner Shop. Clough wrote of the Prisoner, "Patrick McGoohan's ingenious and indeed mysterious television series The Prisoner...stands alone for its revealing presentation of the place. When seen in colour at the local cinema, a performance he kindly arranged, Portmeirion itself seemed, to me, at least, to steal the show from its human cast." At basement level there is an archway with a marble Roman statue on a pagan altar.

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Government House

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Gate House (1954-55, listed Grade II 1971) was Clough's first building at Portmeirion following the lifting of building restrictions after the war (in force until 1954). It straddles the driveway a short distance beyond the old tollgate. Rather than clear a level site for the building Clough made use of the existing terrain, making a feature of the rugged rock formations upon which the Gate House has been constructed. The deep arch, which is floodlit at night, contains a ceiling mural by Hans Feibusch (see below) who painted several at Portmeirion. The random pattern of fenestration, one chimney and many swags give Gate House a very Baroque character. The illusion of shutters to the upper floor windows is created by lines cut in the render and painted green.

Clough wanted visitors to enter the village having passed along a tree lined drive and then under a series of arches, finally emerging on Battery Square where the sense of space and colour would be all the more intense for the semi enclosed route that one was obliged to take.

Gate House is a self-catering cottage sleeping four people and comprising a sitting room, kitchen and dining room on the ground floor and a twin bedroom, two single bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor. During the 1960s it was often taken for the Summer season by Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. The wardrobe in the main bedroom was actually built at his request and to his own specification.

Hans Nathan Feibusch, painter and muralist: born Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany 15 August 1898; married 1935 Sidonie Gestetner (died 1963); died London 18 July 1998. He contributed several Baroque murals at Portmeirion. Of his superbly painted ceiling under the Gate House Clough wrote, "...his profane achievements at Portmeirion are as lively, his pagan deities as vigorous and convincing as well could be." Feibusch also contributed drawings which Clough would have cut out into sheet iron and painted when short of a statue. The cutouts "...simply waited in the queue for an appropriate statue."

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Chantry

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The Chantry (1937, listed Grade II 1971) was so christened simply because Clough happened to like the name. The first phase of building at Portmeirion involved Clough in 'pegging out' the project by committing himself to the essential dominant structures, to be linked up with less important buildings later. Thus was Chantry conceived and built at the highest point of all, an escarpment of rock sheer above the roadway and village green. It was intended for Augustus John and included a studio for him on the top floor, complete with fish eye lens looking out over the Campanile. Augustus John, however, had other plans. The design was fully detailed, including sketches from several angles (above right) and a scale model which can be viewed in the Dome. Chantry was featured in a 1938 book "Small Houses £500 - £2,500" (H. Myles Wright M.A., ARIBA, The Architectural Press, London, 1938) where it is described as follows: "Built firstly to serve as extra accommodation for hotel guests, and ultimately for letting to artist and family. Top floor comprises self-contained studio with access to cupola (chimney) outlook platform...Cost: Approx. £1,500 - 1s 3 1/2 d. per cu. ft." The panel on the cupola is a carving in blue and gold of "Sun and Glory". Chantry is now a self-catering cottage sleeping eight (one twin, one double, four singles, three bathrooms, kitchen and sitting/dining room).

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Telford's Tower

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Telford's Tower (1957, listed Grade II 1971) was built to mark Thomas Telford's bi-centenary. It is an "L" shaped stucco building with an oriel window at its base and a shingle roof with vase finial. Its interiors are finely detailed. A concrete spiral staircase leads up to tower bedrooms. It is a self-catering cottage for three (double and single bedroom, sitting room, kitchen/dining room, bathroom). Between Telford and Unicorn a flight of steps leads through an arch embellished with a high relief lion and unicorn coat of arms to an empty space where Clough had proposed to site his final building at Portmeirion, to be called The Lion Tower. He said in an interview with Peter Davey (11 February 1973), "There is just one tower I want to add between Telford's Tower and the Unicorn."

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Prior's Lodging

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Prior's Lodging (1929; listed Grade II 1971) is a small cottage of two storeys with sprocket eaves and a pantile roof. The seaward side has three tall narrow round headed windows from floor to ceiling. The ground floor originally housed a garage. Above this, through a baroque Italian doorway (below right) from Clough’s old London studio is a twin bedroom and bathroom with small single bedroom. The front door is worthy of note. It is actually one of three acquired by Clough (one is at Plas Brondanw and the other at Castle Yard). Clough explains the rather pious sounding name as follows: "'Prior's Lodging' because its first tenant twenty-five years ago chanced to be the Prior of the Monastery set on the charming island of Caldy off the Pembroke coast."

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Belvedere

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The Belvedere (1960, listed Grade II 1971) is a simple Classical house of two storeys with plain pilasters and a balcony over a recessed arched porch. It was designed in 1960 and built the same year. On the original drawing it is called The Fountain House but as Anchor and Fountain already existed he changed this to Belvedere, justifying the name because "it occupies the premier view-point in all Portmeirion." In front of Belvedere is a balustraded viewing platform overlooking the road. The house was first used for hotel accommodation but is now a self-catering cottage sleeping six (one twin, one double, two singles (one on the ground floor), two bathrooms, a kitchen dining room and sitting room). From 1953 to 1978 Clough’s daughter Susan Williams-Ellis and son-in-law Euan Cooper-Willis encouraged him to complete Portmeirion while assuming responsibility for the general management and arranging the appropriate finance. Thus the 1960s were one of Clough’s most productive periods at Portmeirion with more than twenty buildings completed.

Clough incorporated a stained glass window from Castell Deudraeth (p. 44) in The Belvedere's kitchen/dining room. It was made for David Williams Esq., MP (1799-1869), attorney, landowner and first Liberal Member of Parliament for Merioneth. David Williams bought Castell Deudraeth, then called Bron Eryri, in 1841 and substantially rebuilt it as a castellated mansion. His motto Nid Da onid Duw translates as ‘No Good without God’. Clough bought Castell Deudraeth and its surrounding parkland in 1931 thus extending his Portmeirion estate all the way to the main road at Minffordd.

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Angel

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The Angel (1926, listed Grade II 1971) was Clough's first cottage at Portmeirion. It was so called because Clough had an attractive Angel sign which he wanted to use. Its design dates from late 1925 or early 1926 and the cottage was built in 1926-27 together with Neptune ('the Garage Block'). These two cottages are referred to as "Block A" and "Block B" on Clough’s early drawings. Most drawings for Portmeirion are quite basic and often preliminary in character, with room for variations to be made during construction. In style the Angel is traditional West country vernacular with virtually no straight sides or right angles. The materials are specified as 9-inch brickwork on the ground floor, 4-inch studding faced with cement plaster on the first floor, and Crittall's metal casement windows. Angel is now a self-catering cottage for six people (one double, two twin bedrooms, one bathroom, a sitting room, dining room and kitchen). On Angel’s south terrace Clough erected an Astrolabe to commemorate the introduction of Summer time. The citation round the circular seat reads simply, 'To William Willett, in gratitude'. William Willett was instrumental in establishing summer time and daylight saving and Clough believed we should be grateful to the man who gave us our long summer evenings.

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Lady's Lodge

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Lady's Lodge (1938-39, listed Grade II, 1971) was probably the last pre-war building at Portmeirion (mentioned in the 1939 Guide Book). Originally built as a lock up garage it is one of a pair of Baroque shops with stuccoed walls, pantiled roof and small shop windows of Georgian character. The gables are shaped with scroll sides. The semi circular mural above the bay window is by Hans Feibusch. Susan Williams-Ellis contributed a Byzantine coronation mural in 1956 (below left) but this has not survived and the alcove was opened to form a window.

On conversion to a shop in the early 1960s it was first called Battery Stores and then The Peacock Both signs are featured in The Prisoner. This was the village shop in the series however the interiors were filmed in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios at Borehamwood. Below Lady’s Lodge is a lead sundial in the shape of a cherub (top left) which (listed Grade II in 1971). The Shop is now called Siop Bach (Little Shop). Above it is Lady’s Lodge Beauty Parlour.

Across the road from Lady's Lodge, directly below the Dome, is a pantiled loggia (1963/4, listed Grade II 1971) which houses a gilt statue of the Buddha which Clough salvaged from the relics of a film shoot. Part of the Inn of the Sixth Happiness was shot around Clough's outlook tower at Plas Brondanw in 1958 where Miss Ingrid Bergman fled through a Chinese cemetery, pursued by Japanese soldiers. The Tower had been transformed into a pagoda surrounded by Chinese tombstones and bits of traditional craftsmanship inscribed by a Chinese archaeologist. Characteristic Chinese buildings, including a fortified hilltop town, were fabricated, as well as part of the Great Wall of China (above) in the Nantmor valley. Clough intended that the immense plaster Buddha should adorn a bamboo grove at Portmeirion but later decided that sheltered accommodation would be more appropriate.

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Mermaid

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The Mermaid (c. 1850, "Clough-ed up" 1926, listed Grade II 1971) is one of four buildings in the village to pre-date Clough's involvement (the others being the Salutation, the Hotel and White Horses). It was used as a gardener's bothey between 1842 and 1858 and was described in 1861 by Richard Richards (Pen and Ink Sketches): "I opened a door which led into the garden, [with]a house in the centre of it...Neither man nor woman was there, only a number of foreign water-fowl on a tiny pond, and two monkeys, which by their cries evidently regarded me as an unwelcome intruder." When Clough found the place in 1925 it had become an overgrown wilderness which he set about clearing. He "...dolled up the gardeners bothey, which was pretty dilapidated, in a sort of late eighteenth-century Gothic mood." Mermaid is a self-catering cottage sleeping four (two twin rooms, kitchen, sitting room, two bathrooms).

Fronting the Mermaid is a wishing well adorned with a group of copper dolphins. A slate plaque carries the following dedication: "The Dolphin Group was presented by the staff of Portmeirion to C W-E CBE in affectionate regard on the occasion of his 80th birthday."

Clough added the south facing tent shaped regency canopy supported on trellaced iron columns as well as the canopy and statue to the north gable. The term to "Clough-up" was first coined to describe his treatment of this traditional building, exemplified by these additions and the use of contrasting colours. The scalloped barge-boards are original however and were also used on the hotel building according to early photographs. The white figure is Charity, a wooden statue of the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, possibly by Gabriel Grupello (1644-1730) a court artist who worked chiefly in Brussels and Dusseldorf.

Immediately behind the Gothic Pavilion is a 17th century statue of a lion, a 90th birthday present to Clough by his friends in 1973. The lion was unveiled by Lord Harlech who in his speech welcomed the whole Portmeirion set-up as a 'Good Thing'. The pedestal bears an inscription, carved by Jonah Jones: "Presented to Portmeirion and its Founder, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, by his friends and colleagues on his 90th birthday, May 28th 1973."

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Neptune

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Neptune (1926, listed Grade II 1971) and Angel were Clough's first cottages at Portmeirion, but which came first is unclear. His drawing for Neptune, dated Oct. 1925 calls Neptune "Block A" and Angel "Block B". Its siting alongside Mermaid cottage directly in front of the existing pool suggests that Neptune may have come first. They were certainly conceived as a pair and their construction was probably more or less simultaneous. Both were in situ by the end of 1926 and in use as additional hotel accommodation. Neptune was called "the Garage Block" on early plans (above) and provided space for seven cars. These garages were converted into a shop in the early 1960s, now the Golden Dragon Bookshop.

The first floor accommodation comprises a suite and a double room. Neptune Suite, is reached up a flight of external wooden stairs to a balcony with a plaque of Neptune by Susan Williams-Ellis on the wall. Inside there is a double bedroom with bathroom and sitting room. Next door, reached up a flight of stone steps which also serves Trinity is Neptune One, a double bedroom with bathroom, containing a rug and tiled table also by Susan Williams-Ellis.

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Cliff House

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Opposite the Reception is Cliff House (1969)which was Clough's last large fully detailed building at Portmeirion, designed in August 1967. In November 1970 the Cliff House Annex was designed. Like many of his buildings during this period it is a neo-classical Georgian style house but with several features typical of Clough's work such as the trompe l'oeil windows covering the entire north facing elevation and half of the west elevation. This was to provide privacy for the occupants of the cottage while at the same time adding interest to an otherwise featureless facade. Cliff House is a self-catering cottage sleeping five people. On the ground floor it has a single bedroom and bathroom, a kitchen and sitting dining room and a private patio while on the first floor it has a double bedroom and a twin bedroom each with its own en suite bathroom. Adjoining Cliff House is an annex containing two hotel bedrooms (Cliff House One and Cliff House Two) which Clough added to the main house in 1973.

The statue outside Cliff House is The Huntsman, presumed English, c. 1750 in a similar style to Friga but so severely eroded that identification would be impossible. Evidently the Huntsman had been standing in a very unsheltered position prior to his relocation to the Cliff House in 1969.

Further along the coast at a place he called Diving Board Point Clough constructed Fort Henry during the 1930s in the style of a ruined fort. With its semicircular quay in the little bay beyond this was built as a place for both sea- and sun-bathing.

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Anchor

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Anchor (1936, listed Grade II 1971) was designed in 1930. Clough's preliminary design for Anchor is unusual in showing the dramatic setting of the new building. This block was to stand against a cliff beside a lawn and cascade, at the lowest level in the village. Access is by a bridge leading off the drive which passes it at eaves level. The constructional methods and details were kept as elementary as possible, since each new building had to be started when the hotel closed in the autumn and be completed by the following Easter. Anchor comprised six small bedrooms which in 1990 were converted into three spacious suites. Fountain contains two suites. The mural of Neptune on Anchor is by Hans Feibusch.

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Fountain

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It was at Fountain (1936, listed Grade II) that Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit. His companion, Joyce Carey, wrote about the visit: "Noël arrived back from the U.S.A. in the spring of 1941. 'I've got to write a comedy,' he said, 'people must laugh. I have got an idea and I must get on with it as soon as possible.' The noisy nights of the Blitz prevented him from writing, "and so we took a train to Port Meirion in Wales where we would be able to sleep undisturbed by bombs. It was the perfect place, a small 'mother' hotel and houses built in varying sizes and designs within reach of it. We had a house consisting of two suites one above the other almost on the beach and about fifty yards from the main hotel, and it was there in five days that Blithe Spirit was born... The first day to my utter amazement Noël had written at least two thirds of the first act, page after page of neatly typed script, an incredible feat. He said: 'It's always better with me if it pops out like this'" There was as little delay as possible in casting, rehearsing, and producing Blithe Spirit. It opened at the Piccadilly Theatre where it soon started to fulfil the author's wish to make people laugh.

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Dolphin

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Dolphin (1933-34, listed Grade II 1971) was designed in July 1933 although its name had previously briefly been chosen for the Angel but as Clough needed an excuse to use an attractive Angel sign he crossed out Dolphin on the plan/ He had several carved dolphins also however and so these were used on this building. Dolphin is a self-catering cottage sleeping four (two twin rooms, a kitchen/dining room, sitting room and bathroom). Below it is Royal Dolphin which is a serviced suite (double bedroom, bathroom, sitting room). Dolphin is reached via a flight of steps down from Battery Square or up from the Dolphin wishing well. A loggia at first floor level connects Dolphin to Government House. Leaning over its seaward balcony is a ceramic bust of Shakespeare best seen from the quayside.

A carved Portland stone figure of the goddess Friga executed between 1728 and 1730 by Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770) stands on an integrally carved square plinth inscribed 'FRIX', and a square limestone pedestal. Lord Cobham commissioned Rysbrack to deliver seven statues representing the Saxon gods who gave their names to the days of the week for a rustic temple for his gardens at Stowe. This figure was in situ here by at least 1928 and gives her name to Friday Lane past Mermaid. Clough writes that she was "a prize I secured at the last sale at Stowe when I was engaged in converting that great palace into a public school. There had been a circle of seven such deities severally representing the days of the week, but at a much earlier sale the then Duke of Buckingham, a most splendid bankrupt, had sold off the other six, leaving only mine - who, representing Friday, was presumably deemed unlucky and attracted no bidders."

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Chantry Row

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Chantry Row (built 1962, listed Grade II 1971) was designed in November 1962 and built to link Chantry Cottage to the Pantheon. It is one single storey building arranged to simulate a terrace of four houses, each painted a different colour and with dummy attic windows. Clough had toyed with the idea of building two similar rows to flank the new Piazza but only actually included the Gloriette. There is a viewpoint in front of Chantry Row which features one of the eight Ionic columns that Clough had acquired in the 1930s. Chantry Row consists of two de luxe suites: Chantry Row I (below left) has a double bedroom, bathroom and sitting room and Chantry Row II has two double bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and a central sitting room. The Onion Dome on Chantry Row was designed not only to add interest to Chantry Row but also to hide an unsightly chimney. It consists of half an octagonal turret with half dome painted green in imitation of copper. Seen from behind it is simply a facade, as the design (above) illustrates. However, as Clough liked to point out, it was really only supposed to be seen from the front.

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Gate House

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Gate House (1954-55, listed Grade II 1971) was Clough's first building at Portmeirion following the lifting of building restrictions after the war (in force until 1954). It straddles the driveway a short distance beyond the old tollgate. Rather than clear a level site for the building Clough made use of the existing terrain, making a feature of the rugged rock formations upon which the Gate House has been constructed. The deep arch, which is floodlit at night, contains a ceiling mural by Hans Feibusch (see below) who painted several at Portmeirion. The random pattern of fenestration, one chimney and many swags give Gate House a very Baroque character. The illusion of shutters to the upper floor windows is created by lines cut in the render and painted green.

Clough wanted visitors to enter the village having passed along a tree lined drive and then under a series of arches, finally emerging on Battery Square where the sense of space and colour would be all the more intense for the semi enclosed route that one was obliged to take.

Gate House is a self-catering cottage sleeping four people and comprising a sitting room, kitchen and dining room on the ground floor and a twin bedroom, two single bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor. During the 1960s it was often taken for the Summer season by Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. The wardrobe in the main bedroom was actually built at his request and to his own specification.

Hans Nathan Feibusch, painter and muralist: born Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany 15 August 1898; married 1935 Sidonie Gestetner (died 1963); died London 18 July 1998. He contributed several Baroque murals at Portmeirion. Of his superbly painted ceiling under the Gate House Clough wrote, "...his profane achievements at Portmeirion are as lively, his pagan deities as vigorous and convincing as well could be." Feibusch also contributed drawings which Clough would have cut out into sheet iron and painted when short of a statue. The cutouts "...simply waited in the queue for an appropriate statue."

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Villa Winch

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Villa Winch (1966-67) is located behind Chantry Cottage and is linked to it by a pantiled archway. A design for "The Winch" survives from April 1966 together with a revised version dated June 1966. A cottage for Captain Winch, a neighbour, had been in the planning for some time. A large studio cottage had been designed for Henry Winch comprising a semi-circular studio and roof terrace overlooking the estuary. The building might have been intended for where the Grotto now stands. This rather more modest version was the one that was built in the end. It comprises two self-catering flats sleeping three (twin and single bedroom, sitting dining room, galley kitchen and bathroom). The round windows are trompe l’oeil.

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Watch House

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Watch House (1926-27; listed Grade II 1971) is a small single-storey building of vernacular cottage character. A hipped slate roof (c. 1963) replaced earlier pantiles. It has a very tall round chimney with a conical cap.

The seaward end is built out on columns as a loggia. Watch House was an integral part of Clough's early concept of a group of buildings surrounding a tower on the cliff top and work was already in progress on the site by January 1926. Watch House comprises a double bedroom and bathroom. Descending from the Watch House to the sea is a series of steep walled steps and loggias (1927; listed Grade II; not fully accessible) reminiscent of southern European castles or monasteries. The walls are of stone painted white and the loggias have pantile roofs.

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White Horses

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White Horses (part C18, extended 1966; listed Grade II 1971) was originally a fisherman's cottage. The old part is a single storey stone building with central chimney stack of traditional Welsh pattern. Clough’s addition links the Observatory Tower to the old cottage. It is constructed on arches over the path which overlooks an inset anchorage for boats. The cottage was inhabited for a time by Thomas Edwards, an infamous South Walian better known locally as yr Hwntw Mawr who worked as a labourer for William Maddocks on the Porthmadog embankment. In 1813 he was publicly hanged at Dolgellau for the murder during a robbery of Mary Jones, the maid at Penrhyn Isaf farm close to Portmeirion. White Horses' is so called because with a spring tide and a south-westerly gale, crested breakers batter its walls and occasionally even break and enter. At one time Clough used it as a workshop where weaving and dyeing went on. In 1966 Clough converted White Horses into habitable accommodation by adding two bedrooms raised on arches above the beach footpath. One of the first residents was Patrick McGoohan who stayed at White Horses during the filming of The Prisoner in 1966 and 1967.

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Observatory Tower

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The Observatory Tower (1936-37, listed Grade II 1971) was designed in October 1935. A Camera Obscura said to have been from a German U-Boat was installed in the tower in 1939 as noted in the 'Stop Press' section of the Fourth Edition of the Guide Book (April 1939): "A camera obscura is being installed at the top of the new lighthouse by the White Horses at the end of the old quay." The architectural form of the Observatory Tower has Clough's characteristic forced perspective and scaled-down detail to increase its apparent size. It is now surmounted by a star, however the plan (above) shows a cut-out of a mermaid on a globe which was made but did not survive the frequent coastal gales and is now sited at the old tollgate near the entrance.

At the foot of the Observatory Tower is a Coade stone figure of Nelson (listed Grade II, 1971), given to Clough by Sir Michael Duff of Y Faenol near Caernarfon. Next to it is a weeping beech given to Clough by his friends on his 80th birthday.

Clough said of the Camera Obscura, "there is still, to me, an abiding magic in being able to command at will the whole surrounding landscape to display itself in successive images in sharp detail and vivid colour on the white table before me."

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Band stand

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The Bandstand was designed and built in 1961 as the "Portmeirion Substation superstructure loggia" to house and ultimately disguise the village's electrical submains station, for which it is used to this day. The mermaid panels used here, as well as elsewhere in the village, are from the old seaman's home in Liverpool which he had acquired as a job lot for next to nothing at the time that venerable institution was demolished in 1954. These panels can also be seen on the Gloriette, the Bridge House, Gazebo, Anchor balustrade and inside the Pantheon. One stray panel is located on Gwynedd Council Offices and another in Pont Street in London, at one time the site of a Portmeirion antiques shop.

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Pagoda

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Portmeirion's pagoda made a famous appearance in Ingrid Bergan's film 'The Inn of the Sixth Happiness'.

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Stone Boat

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The Amis Reunis (1930) is neither quite a building nor yet a ship though a bit of both. Almost as soon as Portmeirion opened in 1926 Clough bought and converted a graceful old Porthmadog trading ketch of some seventy tons which he moored alongside the quay. This he used as a houseboat with water and electricity laid on. Part of the idea was that the sight of a considerable sea-going ship tied up to the wharf might suggest to seafarers that the little port was in business once again. During a sudden gale with a spring tide under her and anchors trailing she was carried out towards the island, Ynys Gifftan, and there stranded on a down-sloping shoal so that when the tide ebbed she lay on her beam ends, her masts nearly horizontal and her keel in the air. Having failed to save her, and being at that time engaged in building the new quay to replace the shale bank below the hotel, Clough noticed that the quay's end followed almost exactly the line of the ship's bulwarks and resolved to salve what he could from the wreck and to reconstruct her as a ship-aground. Sections of her stout mainmast act as pillars supporting the dining room's flat roof.

The hotel lawn balustrading and its Coade stone statues are original Victorian features which Clough embellished in 1930 with an elegant quayside loggia called the Casino (above).

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Triumphal Arch

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The Triumphal Arch (1962-63, listed Grade II 1971) was built at the suggestion of Clough's daughter Susan and her husband Euan who pointed that a new way in was needed for delivery lorries that were unable to pass under the Gate House and Bridge House arches. Clough was not sure about a new roadway but when a Triumphal Arch was mentioned he immediately became interested. He soon produced a sketch of a Rococo style gateway with rusticated arch beneath a high pediment inscribed by two massive scrolls. Note the change to a rounded top in the finished work. The statue in the arch is an early nineteenth-century wooden model for a series of lead Caryatids illustrated in Weaver’s English Leadwork (London 1909) with the note: "On a balcony of a house in Park Lane are lead Caryatids, and very graceful they are with their windswept draperies. They were erected about eighty years ago, and their great weight nearly pulled down the whole balcony. " The Mermaid shields were cast in concrete (the plywood template designed by Clough can be seen in the Dome).

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Hercules

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Clough acquired Hercules (by William Brodie) in 1960 (listed Grade II 1971) and drove him on the back of a pick-up from Aberdeen to Portmeirion. He was erected in front of the Hercules Hall at the head of Hercules Steps. Clough knew and admired the works of William Brodie (1815-1881), son of John Brodie, a ship-master of Banff. Apprenticed to a plumber, in his spare time Brodie studied at the Mechanics' Institute, where he amused himself by casting lead figures of well-known people. He soon attracted the attention of a Mr. John Hill Burton, who encouraged him to go to Edinburgh in 1847. Here Brodie studied for four years at the Trustees' School of Design, learning to model on a larger scale. Brodie exhibited at the Royal Academy, at the Royal Scottish Academy and at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Hercules was cast about 1863. Clough found him in Aberdeen from a picture in Country Life; he first saw and sketched him on 1st February 1960. Clough felt that so conspicuous a monument should have something to commemorate and so he attached to its base an inscribed plaque bearing the legend, 'To the Summer of 1959, in honour of its splendour." He hoped that such applause might possibly encourage an encore, which eventually it did, in 1971 and again in 1975. The "Nonesuch" plaque to the west side of the pedestal commemorates Clough's disgust at the cold and wet Summer of 1973.

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