4873

 

II  

Designated  

14/01/1971  

23/08/2002  

The Gate House  

 

Gwynedd  

Penrhyndeudraeth  

 

Portmeirion  

259054  

337196  

 

Straddling the road at the main (eastern) approach to the village.  

Domestic  

 

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. The gatehouse was built 1954-5 and was Sir Clough's first building at Portmeirion following the lifting of wartime building restrictions in 1954. A ceiling mural in the tunnel arch was executed by the German painter and muralist Hans Nathan Feibusch (1898-1998), whose work is to be seen elsewhere in the village. Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles pop group, frequently stayed here in the 1960s.  

Imposing gatehouse of 2 main storeys over a tunnel archway at a point where the road is cut into the cliff. Stucco elevations with hipped slate roof, feathered at the eaves; flush lateral chimney to the NW. Flush buttressing on the SE (downhill) side gives the impression of prounounced battering to the principal (NE and SW) sides. The NE elevation has small casement windows in a scattered pattern as well as circular, shaped and rectangular lights. Rusticated arch with a large polychromed cartouche of the Prince of Wales' crest above, with Garter motto and The Prince of Wales' feathers. Above this is a circular plaque with the Welsh dragon, and directly above this is the chimney; flanking the chimney under the eaves are small casements with faux shutters, incised and painted into the flanking walls. Similarly asymmetrical rear (SW) elevation, with a projecting balcony with Regency style canopy over the rusticated arch; small-pane glazed door. Twelve-pane sashes to the upper floors and a second, recessed balcony off-centre under the eaves, with pierced block-work balustrade and flanking caryatids. Open oculus to the tunnel on the downhill (SE) end, with simple iron-railed balcony above. This with glazed door; 12-pane sash to the upper floor.  

The tunnel ceiling is decorated with a baroque-style mural.  

Listed as a particularly successful example of the ecclectic and personal style of Portmeirion's buildings; one of a number of buildings and structures designed by the eminent architect and conservationist Sir Clough Williams-Ellis for his visionary Portmeirion villiage. Group value with other listed items at Portmeirion.