Y Sgwar (The Square Restaurant)

Location

In the SW corner of Market Square.

History

Tremadog was a town created by William Madocks (1773-1828) in the first decade of the C19 on reclaimed land known as Traeth Mawr, the estuary of Afon Glaslyn. It was originally intended to be a post town on a direct road between London and Dublin, via Porthdinllaen on the Lleyn peninsula, a project that in due course lost out to the Holyhead Road. Tremadog was laid out around a market square, with market hall, coaching inn, houses and shops, with a church and chapel just outside the centre. Building of this small planned development, as well as a separate woollen manufactory, began c1805 and was largely completed by the time Richard Colt Hoare described it in 1810. Nos 12-14 Market Square were part of this first phase of development, and were probably originally shops with houses above.

Exterior

A 2-storey restaurant and house of roughly coursed and squared blocks of quarried stone, slate roof on projecting eaves and hipped to the L, a skylight and stone ridge stack. It has 2 similar replacement shop fronts with glazed doors and small-pane windows immediately R, under painted fascias and in earlier openings. At the R end is a replacement panel door. The upper storey has two 6-pane hornless sash windows.

Interior

Not inspected.

Reason for designation

Listed for its special architectural interest as a pair of early C19 shops and houses, which form part of the original development of Tremaodg, make use of local stone, and retain C19 character and some C19 detail; an integral component of the planned town.