26876

 

II  

Designated  

23/08/2002  

23/08/2002  

Former Tollhouse (Now Public Telephone Kiosk)  

 

Gwynedd  

Penrhyndeudraeth  

 

Portmeirion  

259062  

337223  

 

At the start of the main village road, immediately S of the reception block (Chantry Lodge).  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

 

Portmeirion was designed and laid out by the celebrated architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883-1978) following his purchase of the estate, then called Aber Iâ, in 1926. The village evolved over several decades and was still being added to in the 1970s. Built in the 1950s as a tollhouse, thereby replacing Toll Gate in Battery Square, where visitors originally announced themselves.  

Former tollgate of rubble construction The structure is built in folly-style in the form of a pair of truncated drum towers with central arched entrance; a flight of eight steps ascends up to and through the open entrance and terminates at an arched entrance in the L return of the taller, right-hand tower; this with boarded door. The left-hand tower has a similar arched entrance to the L (facing SE), with recessed panelled door; this gives access to the telephone kiosk. Slit-light to the front (NE) of the latter tower. An electrified lantern is affixed to the top of the stepped-up central link wall which contains the arch.  

 

Listed as one of a number of buildings and structures erected by the eminent architect and conservationist Sir Clough Williams-Ellis for his visionary Portmeirion villiage. Group value with other listed items at Portmeirion.