Gateway, Forecourt and Screen Walls at Coleg Harlech

Cadw's description

Location

Fronting the road on the W side in front of Coleg Harlech.

History

The Coleg Harlech building originated as Plas Wernfawr and was built by the millionaire aesthete and philanthropist George Davidson in 1908 to designs by the Scottish Arts and Crafts architect George Walton; a Great Hall wing, added in 1910, was destroyed by fire in May 1968. The total building costs were reputed to have been around £80,000. The forecourt and screen walls, together with the main gateway all belong to Walton's original design for Plas Wernfawr.

Davidson had settled in Harlech at the turn of the century, initially living at nearby Plas Amhurst before building Plas Wernfawr. He moved in intellectual and avant-garde artistic circles, and soon Plas Wernfawr became the focus of a community of like-minded friends several of whom settled and built their own houses. Amongst these were the composer Sir Greville Bartock, A P Graves (the War poet Robert Graves' father), and the eminent American photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn. Various members of the Fabian Society were associated with the Harlech group, most notably Sir George Bernard Shaw, who was a frequent visitor.
In addition to Plas Wernfawr, Davidson built the nearby St. David's Hotel in 1910, also to designs by Walton; this was gutted by fire in 1922 and was subsequently rebuilt.

In 1925 Davidson decided to relocate to the south of France. Although valued at well over £60,000, Davidson agreed to sell the house for £7,500 to Henry Gethin Lewis, who donated and endowed the building for use as the new Coleg Harlech. The 'College of the Second Chance' was the brain-child of Dr Thomas Jones, Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet under Lloyd George and was opened in 1927; the first Warden was Sir Ben Bowen Thomas. A new library wing was added c1939 to designs by the architect Griffith Morris of Porthmadog. The Harlech Theatre was erected on the site of the Great Hall following the latter's destruction by fire in 1968.

Exterior

Gateway and forecourt walls, constructed of slatestone with the principal sections faced with coursed, quarry-faced blocks. The gateway faces the college complex to the S and consists of a round-arched entrance with pronounced, rusticated voussoirs. This has very fine decorative wrought-iron gates and a wrought iron balustrade above the arch on both sides. The front face has a corbel course and two large projecting copper lanterns with decorative iron brackets. A short section of wall advances to the L, with a balustraded stair ascending on its outer side. This gives access to an iron-balustraded wall walk which surmounts the screen wall.

The outer wall returns northwards from the gateway to follow the course of the road in an irregular curve until it terminates in a modern pedestrian bridge at the Theatre Harlech end (giving high-level access to the car park on the opposite side of the road). The wall is of variable height, reaching a maximum of 4m. It is linked, on the college side, by a series of arcaded forecourt walls which enclose a large part-flagged and part-cobbled court in front of the former Plas Wernfawr. The walls adjoin the latter at the NW corner.

Reason for designation

Listed as a fine early C20 Arts and Crafts gateway with associated walls designed by the architect George Walton as part of the former Plas Wernfawr, home of the millionaire philanthropist and aesthete George Davidson.