St. David's Hotel was an Edwardian Era hotel in Harlech, Wales. The building was located on the A496, adjacent to Theatr Harlech (formerly called Theatr Ardudwy) on the campus of Coleg Harlech, and Royal St David's Golf Club.

Design and construction

The St. David's Hotel is based on proposals drawn-up in January 1907 by

George Henry Walton George Henry Walton (3 June 1867 Glasgow – 10 December 1933 London), was a noted Scottish architect and designer of remarkable diversity. Biography George Walton was born in Glasgow in 1862. He was the youngest of twelve talented children o ...

, a Glasgow School architect and contemporary of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.Moon, K.; "George Walton: Designer and Architect"; White Cockade Publishing, Dorset, 1993; (hb) (pb) The proposals were subsequently revised in 1908, and the hotel was built in 1910. The Hotel has five storeys and a basement. The height of the Hotel was disguised by having the upper three floors included in a giant mansard with rows of dormers.Haslam, R., Orbach., J., Voelcker, A.; Pevsner Architectural Guides: The Buildings of Wales, Gwynedd; 2009; Yale University Press The Hotel reflects skilled craftsmanship, in the handling of materials and detail, that echoes Walton's earlier design for Wern Fawr (now Coleg Harlech). Wern Fawr has been described as being "at the apex of building craft" and St David's Hotel has been described as Walton "at his most professional". At St David's Hotel, Walton provided solutions to a challenging commercial design brief that included the traditional use of heavy masonry on the exterior of the Hotel, which was intended to reflect the use of this material in the locality. In conjunction with this, Walton used

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

to open-up the interiors in order to simplify structural problems, make the most of the sea views, and give the interior "a cheerfulness which could survive even a dull Harlech day". The Hotel sits on the edge of the Harlech

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

. The exterior design responds to the character of the more traditional buildings nearby, because of its use of stone and traditional form. Walton also designed all the fixtures and fittings for the Hotel, including fitted furniture, carpets, tables, chairs, settees and ironmongery, working to a tight budget. Walton is one of the forerunners of later European architects, such as the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

architect Arne Jacobsen, whose design brief for St Catherine's College, Oxford included all the interior fixtures and fittings.Davies, M & D; "Creating St Catherine's College"; St Catherine's College, Oxford, 1997; St David’s Hotel, Harlech, photograph taken prior to 1922

St David’s Hotel, Harlech, photograph taken prior to 1922

The Hotel was built for a syndicate, in which George Walton was involved, and catered primarily for golfers visiting the adjacent Royal St David's Golf Club. The Hotel has been used by generations of golfers and other visitors to Harlech, who retain fond memories. The Hotel had 60 bedrooms and served traditional home-cooked food, facilities included an early twentieth-century lift (elevator), a snooker table, an outdoor pool, and a solarium.

Fire

In 1922, a devastating fire destroyed the interior of the Hotel, so that Walton's original design commission has been lost. The Hotel was then rebuilt hurriedly by Griffith Morris. The three bay centre is now flanked by two storeys of stone, two of roughcast and the attic only is mansarded. The centre has also been altered on the top two floors and has a ground floor addition. It is unclear from the records how much of the original interior structure has survived. The later, low quality, extensions have diminished the grand aspect of Walton's original structure. Despite this, the Hotel is retained in Cadw's listing description for Coleg Harlech, which is a Grade II* Listed Building, and this suggests that the Hotel was notable due to its group value.

Demolition

The Hotel closed in 2008 and became subject to planning application NP5/61/23L which was lodged with the Snowdonia National Park Authority (SNPA) for the following proposal: "Full application for demolition of hotel and djacentcollege hall of residence and construction of a new 130 bedroom hotel and 76 holiday apartments, formation of new internal road layout, landscaping and associated engineering works." The proposals for the site were reviewed by the

Design Commission for Wales A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

(DCW) in October 2006 and subsequent comments were made in November 2006 and January 2007, in response to design revisions. On 17 December 2008, the DCW issued a Design Review Report which concluded, inter alia, that the replacement hotel complex would be an "overdevelopment of the site".Design Review Report/Addroddiad Adolygu Dylunio of the Design Commission For Wales/Comisiwn Dylunio Cymru, issued on 17 December 2008 http://dcfw.org/design/reports/view/st_davids_hotel_harlech Retrieved 22 January 2010 St David’s Hotel, Harlech

Planning Application NP5/61/23L was heard, and approved, by the SNPA's Planning and Access Committee at a public meeting held at

Plas Tan y Bwlch Plas Tan y Bwlch in Gwynedd, Wales, is the Snowdonia National Park environmental studies centre, administered by the National Park Authority. It is located approximately east of the coastal town of Porthmadog, overlooking the valley of the Ri ...

Maentwrog Maentwrog () is a village and community in the Welsh county of Merionethshire (now part of Gwynedd), lying in the Vale of Ffestiniog just below Blaenau Ffestiniog, within the Snowdonia National Park. The River Dwyryd runs alongside the villag ...

on April 29, 2009. It was resolved to demolish the Hotel and that demolition was within the provisions of the

Eryri Local Plan Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...

prepared by the SNPA under the provision of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and formally adopted by resolution of the National Park Committee up to 2003. The Design Review Report of the DCW notes that: "there has been very little community response" to the proposed demolition of the Hotel. The hotel was finally demolished in October 2019, with the Welsh Government and Gwynedd Council contributing to the cost.

Planning dispute

In December 2015 the SNPA filed an enforcement notice under section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA) requiring the owners, Aitchinson Associates Limited (AAL) of

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, to demolish the Hotel, which had remained closed since 2008 and had subsequently fallen into disrepair. AAL had until April 28, 2017 for the site to be cleared completely. However demolition work did not take place and AAL were taken to court by the SNPA due to a lack of action. The Magistrates' court (England and Wales) at Caernarfon fined AAL the maximum fine under Section 215 of the TCPA, in the amount of £1,000, together with a victim surcharge of £100, and awarded costs to the SNPA of £552.20. The SNPA noted the poor condition of the Hotel, with windows rotting, dormer windows completely perished, and sections of the roof collapsed. The SNPA also commented that it had been inundated with complaints from local residents and visitors to Harlech about the poor condition of the Hotel building, which lies in an elevated position adjacent to the

A496 road The A496 is a major coastal and mountainous road in southern Snowdonia. The road is 32.8 miles in length, from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Llanelltyd, via Harlech. The original northern terminus of the road before A470 re-numbering was Llandudno. The ...

. On 17 October 2018, the SNPA's Planning and Access Committee considered exploring the possibility of initiating formal ‘direct action’ under Section 219 of the TCPA, in order to attempt to secure the demolition of the Hotel, due to the untidy condition of the building. In April, 2018 AAL were fined £20,900 and ordered to pay costs of £782 by Caernarfon Magistrates' court for failing to comply with the court order to demolish the Hotel. The SNPA noted that demolition of the Hotel remains subject to securing funding, but in a press release they stated that they are keen to address other issues to help facilitate the demolition work, should funding become available. The SNPA pointed out that a key issue is the building of a structure within which the bats that currently live in the Hotel can be relocated, noting that all species of bats and their roosts are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. With the permission of AAL a contractor was commissioned to construct a small bat barn on the site during the first quarter of 2019.

Legacy

The Hotel forms an important part of Harlech's Arts and Crafts movement legacy.

References

External links

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_cArsCi5Sg * http://www.harlech.com/stdavids.html * https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/838457 Hotels in Gwynedd Defunct hotels in Wales Arts and Crafts movement Hotel buildings completed in 1910 Demolished buildings and structures in Wales Buildings and structures demolished in 2019