Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
252
Building Number
Grade
II*
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
04/10/1973
Date of Amendment
10/06/1997
Name of Property
Towyn and Kinmel Bay Youth Club
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Conwy
Community
Kinmel Bay and Towyn
Town
Kinmel Bay and Towyn
Locality
Towyn
Easting
297398
Northing
379456
Street Side
NW
Location
One of a group of 3 buildings, set facing the main Rhyl to Abergele Road, immediately E of Sandbank Road at the centre of Towyn.
Description
Broad Class
Recreational
Period
History
Built in 1871 as the first element in the group of buildings designed by G E Street, architect of London, for Robert Bamford Hesketh of Gwrych Castle for the newly formed parish of Towyn. The school cost £2,000. G E Street, like Butterfield, designed a number of such groups including a school for new settlements or wealthy individuals; the Towyn group is clearly second only to Boyne Hill, Maidenhead, for the quality of both its architecture and the grouping, and being the last of his career, may be said to have profited from over 20 years of professional experience.
Exterior
Built in a Gothic style, of polygonal local limestone with oolitic limestone dressings, and a blue and green zig-zag patterned slate roof with pierced clayware ridges. The school occupies the central block and a forward wing towards the W end, with the master's house in the E wing forming a 'U'-plan. Single storey ablution block detached to the rear. The central block is long, with low set corner buttresses and the entrance to the school on the right, recessed behind an open Gothic doorway against the master's house. Three-light trefoil headed windows either side of a central projecting stack, which offsets above the eaves to form a small gable originally rising to an octagonal stone stack. The W wing has a 3-light transomed and traceried window with hood moulding set on a mid-wall string. The slightly wider E wing has stone mullioned windows to both floors of the house, embraced in a chamfered frame, with a stair window to the right. To the left of the school entrance, a tall diagonally set fleche-like bellcote clad in lead. The entrance to the master's house is on the E; an ogee moulded doorhead, and stone dressed windows. The tall stone octagonal chimneys to the central hall and the wings have been dismantled, but remain on site.
Interior
Behind the entrance porch, a small room, probably cloakroom, has a stone moulded doorway lead out to the rear. The master's house has a stone fireplace in the front living room.
Reason for designation
Listed Grade II* as one of the three important elements in this outstanding group of buildings by a pre-eminent Victorian architect.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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