13524

11  

II  

Designated  

17/07/1990  

26/02/2001  

The Criterion Public House  

11 High Street  

Rhondda Cynon Taff  

Pontypridd  

Pontypridd  

Pontypridd  

307212  

189871  

E  

Close to the corner with Broadway at the crossroads below the railway station. Set into a row of frontages.  

Commercial  

 

Dated 1904.  

Symmetrical 2-storey and attic public house, with a gable front displaying highly unusual detail. The attic is jettied on deep fluted brackets and has East Anglian style foliage pargetting around a small pane casement window. The first floor has panelled pilasters to ends and flanking central tripartite window, projected forward to middle in Jacobean triangular manner. Between the pilasters are vertical panels of plasterwork including dragons, foliage and bowls of fruit, while a horizontal plaster panel below the window includes dolphins. The ground floor is recessed behind a mosaic and lettered pavement and has a panelled ceiling. The central bay is 5-sided and projects on a bulbous bowl-like base, with 4-centred arched windows with slender colonnettes and overlights with tulip pattern stained glass. It is flanked by panelled doors with similar overlights. The roof is slate.  

The interior has an ornate panelled ceiling with moulded ribs and foliage friezes to the main cross beams and cornice. Opposite the bar is an Art Nouveau tiled dado.  

Listed for architectural interest as a striking and original public house with unusual East Anglian style pargetting over a remarkable glazed bar frontage.