The Shire Hall ( cy, Neuadd y Sir, Casnewydd) is a municipal building in Newport, south

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

. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

, which established county councils in every county, it became necessary to establish a permanent meeting place for the newly formed

Monmouthshire County Council Monmouthshire County Council (or simply Monmouthshire Council) ( cy, Cyngor Sir Fynwy) is the governing body for the Monmouthshire principal area – one of the unitary authorities of Wales. The current unitary authority was created in 1996 a ...

. The site selected by county leaders was open land to the west of Queen's Hill in Newport. The building, which was designed by the county architect, William Tanner, opened as the "County Council Offices" in 1902. The design for the original two-storey structure involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Pentonville with the end bays slightly projected forward; the central section, which also slightly projected forward, featured a porch with a curved

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

; there was triple window on the first floor and gable above with a roundel containing the words: "Monmouthshire County Council 1889". Cadw, has described it as an "impressively-designed

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

civic building". An extra bay to the right, an extra three bays to the left and an extra storey on top of the building were all added in 1913. The Queen's Chambers to the right were also remodelled and given an extra floor at that time and an octagonal shaped council chamber was subsequently built to the rear of the main building. The county council continued to meet at the Shire Hall until the county council was abolished in 1974. The building continued to be used by the local council as workspace until 1978 and then remained empty until 2012. In May 2011 SK Design submitted plans to convert the building into 20 flats; this proposal was subsequently modified to 19 flats but the proposal did not come to fruition. In May 2013, the hall was sold to

Secret Millionaire Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

Jahan Abedi who submitted plans to convert the building into 11 one-bedroom apartments and seven two-bedroom flats with a reception area and a bicycle storage area. Abedi was later quite critical of the bureaucratic challenges he had needed to overcome to obtain a planning consent. Nevertheless, he secured funding from

Finance Wales The Development Bank of Wales (branded as simply Banc; cy, Banc Datblygu Cymru) is a Welsh development bank that provides financial support for Welsh businesses and is owned by the Welsh Government. The bank provides loans for businesses to star ...

and completed the development in 2014.

References

{{City of Newport Edwardian architecture Government buildings in Wales Grade II listed buildings in Newport, Wales Landmarks in Newport, Wales History of Newport, Wales Government buildings completed in 1902 N