6 Bangor Street

Cadw's description

Location

Set into a row of frontages near the S end of the street.

History

2-6 Bangor Street was built in the third quarter of the C19 but the original L end was probably demolished when the Library and Institute was built in 1884. The block is first shown on the 1890 Ordnance Survey. No 6 was a temperance house and confectionery in 1895.

Exterior

Belongs to a group of 2-6 Bangor Street.

A terrace of 3½-storey 2-bay shops with dwellings above, in a vigorous enriched classical style. Roughcast front, mansard slate roof, hipped to the R, and roughcast stacks. The lower-storey shop fronts have been altered but the upper storeys form a single coherent design. The middle and upper storeys have double-height fluted and wreathed Ionic pilasters framing each property, a deep dentilled cornice then short Tuscan pilasters to the attic, which between Nos 4 and 6 retains an original cast iron anthemion finial. In the middle storey Nos 4 and 6 have a pair of 4-pane horned sash windows in architraves which are moulded above the capitals of Tuscan pilasters. No 6 also has an iron sign bracket between the middle-storey windows. No 2, to the R end, has a tripartite window in a segmental-headed architrave in the middle storey, which is moulded above the crocket capitals of pilasters and has a foliage enriched keystone, while colonnettes have similar capitals. The central round-headed light is replaced but the outer segmental-headed windows retain 4-pane sashes. Above the middle storey windows is a blank inscription band forming a plain architrave. In the upper storey each property has 2 segmental-headed 4-pane sash windows in architraves moulded above the capitals of Tuscan pilasters. In the attic storey of No 2 a half dormer has a pair of replaced windows in segmental-headed keyed architraves beneath a single open segmental pediment on moulded corbels. No 4 has a 4-pane sash window in a segmental headed keyed architrave to a gabled half dormer. No 6 has round-headed 4-pane sash window under a moulded head with keystone and set in a round-headed half-dormer.

The R corner is rounded and rebated between Ionic pilasters, and has 'Rhydalun House' in raised letters at attic level. The R-hand side wall, facing North Penrallt has a single bay similar to the front of No 2, including attic dormer, except that that middle storey window has no colonnettes. Further R is a plainer 3½ storey wing of 4 unequal bays. It has a roughcast front with broad bands between storeys, a deep bracketed eaves cornice below the attic, and a slate mansard roof. In the lower storey are segmental-headed keyed architraves to 4-pane horned sash windows. A replaced door is in the bay R of centre, while the narrow R-hand bay has a boarded passage door. In the middle and upper storeys are segmental-headed moulded architraves with keystones to 4-pane horned sash windows, with a similar 2-pane window in the narrow end bay, of which the lower sash is boarded up. The attic has a central 4-pane round-headed half dormer. Similar half dormers equally placed R and L have been removed and replaced by skylights. The R-hand bay has a small attic window.

The shop front is framed by original plain pilasters with fluted consoles to a fascia with dentil cornice. The shop window is of plate glass over a boarded stall riser, while the half-lit panelled door is recessed on the R side.

Reason for designation

Listed as a strong group well representing the eclectic classicism of late Victorian commercial architecture, and which contributes to the strong overall late C19 commercial character of Bangor Street, Bridge Street and Eastgate Street.