Llandrindod Wells Library, is located in The Gwalia, () which is a municipal building on Ithon Road,

Llandrindod Wells Llandrindod Wells (; ; ; ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Powys, Wales. It serves as the seat of Powys County Council, and is therefore the administrative centre of Powys. The town was Historic counties of Wales, historically in ...

Powys Powys ( , ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham to the north; the English Ceremonial counties of England, ceremo ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. The structure, which was the headquarters of Radnorshire District Council, is now a customer service point for

Powys County Council Powys County Council () is the local authority for Powys, one of the 22 principal areas of Wales. The council is based at County Hall in Llandrindod Wells. History The county of Powys was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act ...

, and also features a public library. The building 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 Gwalia Hotel was originally established on the north side of Ithon Road in around 1870. The guests came to the hotel to "take the waters" at the natural springs in Rock Park. As the hotel became more popular, the owners decided to commission a larger hotel on the south side of Ithon Road. The new building was designed by Swash and Bain of Newport in the Baroque Revival style, built in red brick with stone dressings and was officially opened in 1900. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the corner of Norton Terrace and Ithon Road. The central bay featured a round headed doorway on the ground floor; there were pairs of

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s on the first and second floors flanked by ornate

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s which spanned both floors and supported a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

ed segmental

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

with a shield in the tympanum. The flanking bays were fenestrated by sash windows on the first and second floors with ornate stone panels between the two floors. At attic level, there were

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

windows with segmental pediments in the three central bays. The end bays took the form of

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al towers surmounted by

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

s. The hotel became a fashionable destination: visitors included the future

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 ...

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 ...

, who stayed there in 1903, 1904 and again in 1905. The composer, Sir Edward Elgar, stayed at the hotel in 1909, and David Lloyd George's mistress, Frances Stevenson, sent him love letters from the hotel in August 1925. The building was requisitioned for military use during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and, following a general loss of interest in health spas, never re-opened after the war. It was sold at auction by auctioneers, Campbell & Edwards, at the Lansdowne Sale Rooms on 21 September 1948. The building was acquired by Radnorshire County Council and the council officers and their departments, who had been based in the "County Buildings" in the High Street at Llandrindod Wells since 1909, moved into the former hotel in 1950. Following local government reorganisation in 1974, the building became the headquarters of Radnorshire District Council, and, following the introduction of

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

in 1996, it became a customer service point for

. The local library, which had been based Beaufort Road, relocated into the building to collocate with the customer service point in 2014.

References

{{Government buildings in Wales Llandrindod Wells Grade II listed buildings in Powys Government buildings completed in 1900

Libraries in Wales