Conwy Guildhall
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Conwy Guildhall () is a municipal structure in Rose Hill Street,
Conwy Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy ...
, Wales. The guildhall, which is the meeting place of Conwy Town Council, is a Grade II
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
.


History

The first building on the site was a
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
hall completed in the 13th century. A new structure, which was arcaded on the ground floor so markets could be held, with an assembly hall on the first floor, was completed in 1613. That structure was replaced by a national school in the early 19th century. However, the national school moved to a new building further to the west along Rose Hill Street in 1840, and borough leaders decided to demolish the old school building and to replace it with a new civic building in the mid-19th century. The new building was designed in the Gothic Revival style, built in
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
with
Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate originally obtained from the Middle Jurassic aged Great Oolite Group of the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its h ...
dressings and was completed in 1863. The design involved a range with a gable end facing Rose Hill Street, a square tower to the right of the gable end and a flight of steps leading up from Castle Square to a porch. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber. Until 1877 Conwy's council was an unreformed
ancient borough An ancient borough was a historic unit of lower-tier local government in England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the co ...
corporation. In 1877 the town was made a
municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...
, run by an elected borough council, which based itself at the guildhall. In the late 19th century, burgh leaders erected a public hall on the northeast side of Castle Street but this was largely used as an events venue, leaving the guildhall to continue as the main municipal building in the town. The guildhall was extended to the south east to create a new council chamber in 1925. The design involved a new range with a gable end facing Castle Street; the steps on the Castle Street elevation were removed and an elaborate porch was erected. The new porch involved an arched doorway with a hood mould and carved
quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...
s in the
spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...
s, a panel inscribed with the word "guildhall" in antique lettering above the doorway, and a small pediment bearing a roundel with the borough seal above that; there was also a three light mullioned window to the right of the doorway. On completion of the works, the old council chamber became the mayor's parlour.
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
,
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
from 1916 to 1922, was the Member of Parliament for the Carnarvon Boroughs constituency, which included Conwy, from 1890 until 1945. He is known to have met with borough leaders at the guildhall in the 1930s. In 1937 the borough council acquired a large house called Bodlondeb, built in 1877 on Bangor Road, and converted the house to become its main offices. From 1937 until 1974 the council held its meetings at the guildhall but had its main offices at Bodlondeb. Local government reorganisation in 1974 saw the borough council abolished and the area become part of Aberconwy District. Bodlondeb was extended to provide additional offices space for Aberconwy District Council and to incorporate a council chamber. After 1974, the guildhall became the meeting place of Conwy Town Council, a lower-tier
community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...
council. An extensive programme of refurbishment works was completed in 1996. Works of art in the guildhall include a portrait by John Dawson Watson of the former mayor, William Hughes, a painting by Richard Wilson of Conwy Castle, and a painting by Franz Emile Herman Krause depicting the rail accident which took place at Penmaenmawr in January 1899.


References

{{Government buildings in Wales Government buildings completed in 1863 City and town halls in Wales Buildings and structures in Conwy Grade II listed buildings in Conwy County Borough Gothic Revival architecture in Wales