is a Grade II listed former hotel, former main offices of Ceredigion County Council and former Magistrates Court building located in

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

, well known as the outside of the police station in the

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

police television series '' Y Gwyll (Hinterland)''.

History

Originally constructed as a detached hotel on the town's seafront, it was opened in 1866 by the Hafod Hotel Company as the "Queen's Hotel". Designed by C. Forster Hayward of Hayward & Davis in the then popular symmetrical Hôtel de Ville style, it was a smaller-scale version of his earlier 1863 Duke of Cornwall Hotel in Plymouth. The five storey premises – basement, ground floor plus three upper floors – created a total floor area of , providing 83 bedrooms. Built by George Lumley of Aberystwyth, the dressed stone exterior was capped by a Mansard roof of locally sourced Welsh slate. Internally, the main entrance in a

gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

style led to a staircase, lit from above by a

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

window in the mezzanine. The entrance area also included access to an early passenger lift, and the ballroom. Many of the main spaces included acanthus plaster ceilings, whilst other public areas were faced with

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

and ore panels. The ground floor toilets presently remain intact, equipped with the original

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

sinks and

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

taps. Commandeered as the local

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

base and accommodation unit 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 ...

, Aberystwyth Council purchased the building post-war, and after conversion under County Architect G. R. Bruce, used the building from 1950 onwards. Due to the space available, during the council's period of occupation the building was additionally used for periods of time as: a

dentistry Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the Human tooth, teeth, gums, and Human mouth, mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, dis ...

; emergency evacuation hospital; a police station; a register office for weddings; an Aberystwyth University lecture theatre; and the county archives. The local circuit Magistrates Court later moved into the building, using the former ballroom as their main court. Ceredigion County Council moved to the newly built Canolfan Rheidol in mid-2009, with the court remaining until 2012. In December 2013 the council placed the unoccupied building up for sale at £1million, under chartered surveyors Cooke & Arkwright. After it did not sell, the council chose in June 2014 to put the building up for public

auction An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...

. The building was subsequently sold for £530,000 and was being converted by Hawkstone Ltd into a spa hotel that would also have 20 luxury flats and 19 studio apartments for rent. The developers expected to spend £5 million on the renovation.

''Y Gwyll'' (''Hinterland'')

From April 2013, the Welsh television production company Fiction Factory started filming the police television series '' Y Gwyll (Hinterland)'', starring Richard Harrington. Filmed in both Welsh and English, the Welsh version was broadcast on S4C from October 2013, the bilingual on BBC One Wales from January 2014 and BBC Four from March 2014. Shot over a 124-day period in and around Aberystwyth and the surrounding

Ceredigion Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the West Wales, west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the River Dyfi, Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire t ...

region, the unoccupied building acted as both the series production offices, and the external face of Swyddfa'r Sir serves as the outside of the series' fictional police station. In light of the building's proposed sale, the production company requested access for the second series, which was to be filmed starting in September 2014. Only the exterior was used for filming of that second series.

References

{{Government buildings in Wales Hotel buildings completed in 1866 Buildings and structures in Aberystwyth Grade II listed buildings in Ceredigion Defunct hotels in Wales 1866 establishments in Wales