4886

 

II  

Designated  

14/01/1971  

23/08/2002  

Salutation  

 

Gwynedd  

Penrhyndeudraeth  

 

Portmeirion  

258924  

337225  

 

At the northern edge of the lower village group, behind the Central Piazza.  

Commercial  

 

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 Salutation originated as the stable block and lodge to the house of Aber Ia (now the hotel), and was erected sometime between 1842 and 1858. In 1861 it was described as:` the lodge with stables adjoining, the latter being built with all the most modern improvements.' The building was originally restored by CWE `in a rather slapdash way' c1926 and was `Cloughed-up' again in 1966-7 when the right-hand block acquired its Dutch-style gable. The building was used as a cafe from 1931 onwards and subsequently included the Ship Shop which served as the first outlet for Susan Williams-Ellis's Portmeirion Pottery.  

U-shaped former stable complex of one-and-a-half storeys arranged around a black/white quarry-flagged courtyard; partly-rendered, coursed stone construction, with fish-scale slated roofs of medium-steep pitch. Triple twisted terracotta Gothic stacks to a chimney at L. The central, recessed section has glazed small-pane doors to the centre with a decorative sloped metal canopy porch above. Three flat-roofed dormers to the roof with 2-part 12-pane casements. The left-hand advanced wing has 2 large arched windows to both the gable end and the inner (E) side, the latter with a further, trompe l'oeil window to the centre. Above those to the gable end is a small Gothic tracery oculus, together with a decorative iron hanging sign. The W side has a large advanced central gable with large canted bay;12-pane window with narrow 4-pane outer lights. Flanking this central bay are further single bays also with (smaller) gables; that to the L has an entrance with stone quoins, that to the R an arched window as before. The right-hand advanced wing has a voluted Dutch gable with large lattice-glazed doors leading onto a corbelled first-floor balcony with iron railings; trompe l'oeil oval oculus in the gable apex above. The ground floor has a canted bay with 20-pane front and 8-pane side windows. Further decorative iron hanging sign to the L. The inner side has a single-storey shop extruded in the angle with the central range; this has a shallow canted front and small-pane glazing throughout. The E side of this block has an external rick stair giving access to a first-floor entrance.  

 

Listed as a mid C19 former stable block `cloughed-up' by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis; one of a number of buildings and structures designed or altered by the eminent architect and conservationist Sir Clough Williams-Ellis for his visionary Portmeirion villiage. Group value with other listed items at Portmeirion.