4887

 

II  

Designated  

14/01/1971  

23/08/2002  

Triumphal Arch Including Adjoining Service Block to the NW  

 

Gwynedd  

Penrhyndeudraeth  

 

Portmeirion  

258911  

337234  

 

At the start of the northern (service) access road leading to and from the village, adjoining the small piazza.  

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. Designed and built 1962-3 as an entrance and focus for a new service road which was laid out at that time. It incorporates an early C19 wooden model for a series of lead caryatids.  

Triumphal gateway in Rococo style. Stuccoed brick with raised stucco quoins and banding. Rusticated arch over carriageway beneath high pediment inscribed by 2 massive scrolls with a semi-circular top. In the centre of the pediment is a round headed niche, with shell cartouche over. The niche contains a classical female figure. Applied cartouches of cast concrete to each pier flanking the arch. This archway, by which the visitor may leave the village, complements the 2 entrance gateways. Adjoining the gateway to the NW is a single-storey service block with rendered elevations and mono-pitch corrugated iron roof. The block has three round-arched entrances with boarded doors and vertically-slatted upper sections; a small link section of wall adjoins stepped-down to the L with small road-arched entrance and boarded door.  

 

Listed as a well-conceived Rococo-style arch; one of a number of buildings designed by the eminent architect and conservationist Sir Clough Williams-Ellis for his visionary Portmeirion villiage. Group value with other listed items at Portmeirion.