18499

 

II*  

Designated  

14/07/1997  

14/07/1997  

Maesteg Council Offices, with flanking walls and piers.  

 

Bridgend  

Maesteg  

Maesteg  

Maesteg  

285225  

191309  

S  

Located behind the town hall on the S side of Talbot Street.  

Civil  

 

Built in 1911-1913 by S J Harpur, surveyor to the council.  

Built of rubble stone with painted stone dressings. Baroque style. Two storeys with basement, 7 window bays. The front is symmetrical, bound by channel rusticated pilasters, and the centre slightly bowed forward, with paired columns with capitals with square volutes flanking the entrance.. The ground floor round-headed windows have architraved and eared surrounds, and have complex glazing pattern in iron, containing stained and coloured glass. The first floor has architraved 12-pane sashes with deep aprons and mutules. At the centre, a Venetian type window with scrolled motif above. The entrance is approached by 4 steps, and double doors in an egg and dart moulded surround. Above the heavy dentilled entablature is the inscription MAESTEG COUNCIL OFFICES on the frieze, and the date 1914 is cut on the raised parapet. The facade has flanking walls sweeping down to gate piers, crowned with offsetting capitals and ball finials.  

The building is centred on an open oval hall on three floors, with stairs winding up and down either side of a bridge from the entrance lobby, all on a compact scale, with Tuscan and Ionic columns with square volutes as the exterior. The stairs have an open well and iron balustrades. Doors off the oval hall to offices, with the Council Chamber to the right. This is in the form of a semicircular discussion chamber set within the rectangular space, the shape defined by four columns visually cutting off the corners. High dado panelling and panelled ceiling. Three rows of fixed bench seats with writing tables are set out on the semi-circle on the shallow stepped floor, with 5 aldermanic seats facing. Parquet floor. The windows are round headed, 4 x 3, with coloured glass with a circular MDC monogram. All carefully designed and on a small scale.  

Included at Grade II* as a ingeniously designed and integrated building in an unusual style, with carefully considered detailing, and one of a group of listed buildings at the centre of Maesteg.