Grosvenor Road () is a road and

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

Wrexham city centre Wrexham city centre is the administrative, cultural and historic city centre of Wrexham, in North Wales and is the area enclosed by the inner ring road of the city. It is the largest shopping area in north and mid Wales, and the administrative c ...

, North Wales. The conservation area spans the road itself and adjacent streets, particularly all of Grove Road.

Conservation area

The ''Grosvenor Road Conservation Area'' () is a

that covers all of Grosvenor Road, all of Grove Road, and parts of Gerald Street, Grove Park Road, King Street, Regent Street, Rhosddu Road and part of the campus of the former

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

(now part of

Coleg Cambria Coleg Cambria in North East Wales is one of the UK's largest colleges, with over 7,000 full-time and 20,000 part-time students, and has international links covering four continents. Coleg Cambria was created following the merger of Deeside Colleg ...

). The conservation area was first designated in September 1990, and in 2009 a character assessment and management plan was made.

Description and history

Grosvenor Road was originally a path known as "Rope Walk". It was set out between 1861 and 1881 along the lines of the path and through the open land of the "Oak Tree Field". It is named after the

Grosvenor family Grosvenor may refer to: People * Grosvenor (surname), including a list of people with the surname Grosvenor * Grosvenor Francis (1873–1944), Australian politician * Grosvenor Hodgkinson (1818–1881), English lawyer and politician Places ...

, later the Dukes of Westminster, residing in Eaton Hall near

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

. Grosvenor Road was part of a prestigious residential area catered to the growing middle class of Wrexham. The road itself was originally a private road, with gates at each end, although no evidence of the gates have survived. The first building built on the road was possibly ''Brynhyfryd'' (), with ''Grosvenor Lodge'' being the second-built. By 1881, most of the road was developed, and by 1951 most of the street's buildings were used as offices, with a remaining few residences. Of its buildings, the most notable are its Italianate villas.

Listed buildings

Grosvenor Lodge

, originally ''Grosvenor Lodge'', was built in 1869 by J.R. Gummow and is in an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

style, self-described as "Anglo-Italian". Constructed as initially a private residence, it was purchased by Wrexham council in 1924, becoming an office, and then a

medical clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

up until the 1990s, being renovated in 2001. Its exterior is made of brick, with a

slate roof Roofing slates are roofing tiles made out of slate. The rock is split into thin sheets which are cut to the requires size before shipment. This contrasts to slabs which are milled to produce larger structural components. They are the primary produ ...

and is two storeys high. Until 1959, the Royal Welch Fusiliers War Memorial stood outside until its relocation to Chester Street.

No. 2

, originally ''Brynhyfryd'', was built in 1868, and was the first house built on Grosvenor Road. Its style is of a simplified

style.This council source only states it is "possibly to the designs of Gummow", as the more authoritative source their uncertainty of the designer is mentioned here. The building served as Wrexham's

register office A register office, commonly referred to unofficially as a registry office or registrar's office is an office in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and some Commonwealth countries responsible for the civil registration of births, deaths, marri ...

, an Assistance Board Area Office, and a private residence. It is located on the corner of Regent Street and Grosvenor Road, near

Wrexham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, also known as St Mary's Cathedral or Wrexham Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Wrexham, Wales. It is the seat of the Bishop of Wrexham, and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of W ...

. It was possibly designed by J.R. Gummow, a local architect. It's exterior is made of

brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

, with some

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

dressings. It has a

and is two storeys. The building's entrance is located at its centre and fronts Grosvenor Road.

No. 26 and 28

and were built between 1869 and 1872 as a pair of houses in a villa design, with one of them now used as offices. Its exterior is of Flemish bond brickwork and has a slate roof. Both houses are identical to each other, resembling their composition as a pair, however they are not symmetrical. They are two-storeys with a six-window range.

Abbotsfield

''Abbotsfield'' was designed in the 1860s by local architect James Reynolds Gummow as a private residence. It was constructed and built from 1863 to 1865, and was the first house built on the Rhosddu end of Grosvenor Road. It later became an Area Education Office for the

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. It borders the Irish Sea to the north, Flintshire to the east, Wrexham to the southeast, Powys to the south, and Gwynedd and Conwy to the west. Rhyl is the largest town, and Ruthi ...

and later Clwyd council. It served as the Abbotsfield Priory War Nursery during the World Wars. The council later sold building in the 1970s to become a hotel in 1982, then a hotel and a bar in the 1970s to the 1990s. In 2000 it became an Italian restaurant, then its now modern use as "The Lemon Tree" restaurant, bar and hotel. The building is located on the corner of Grosvenor Road and Rhosddu Road, It is two storeys,

grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed, and in the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style. Its exterior is of coursed and squared tooled sandstone, with the roof being made of slate. The building is arranged as a L-plan with its entrance located at the centre.

Other buildings

is "Kelso House", and where it once was a school. Its name "Kelso House" is carved into one of its gate pillars.

Wrexham Islamic Cultural Centre

The building opened in 1923 as the "North Wales Mine Workers Institute", with its opening funded largely by the subscription fees of miners that are members of the institute, as well as revenue from the events that were held in the building. Following the

Gresford disaster The Gresford disaster () occurred on 22 September 1934 at Gresford Colliery, near Wrexham, when an explosion and underground fire killed 261 men. Gresford is one of Britain's worst coal mining disasters: a controversial inquiry into the disaster ...

, the building assisted in the Relief Fund following the disaster. During the

1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike The 1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike was a major industrial action within the Coal mining in the United Kingdom, British coal industry in an attempt to prevent closures of pits that were uneconomic in the coal industry, which had been ...

, in October 1984,

Bersham Colliery Bersham Colliery was a large coal mine located near Rhostyllen in Wrexham County Borough, Wrexham, Wales. The mine accessed seams found in the Denbighshire Coalfield. History The Wrexham area in the 19th Century was highly industrialised. At t ...

workers held a meeting in the building, described to have been "very divisive". The institute closed in 2008. In 2010, the building was purchased by the Wrexham Muslim Association. Under their ownership the building has been converted into a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

, a place of worship for local Muslims, offering educational, religious and cultural services.

Historical buildings

On the site where stand was historically the site of a school on Grosvenor Road, known as the "Convent", a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, later replaced by St Joseph's Catholic and Anglican High School. The site now houses government offices at .

References

{{Wrexham Wrexham Conservation areas in Wales Streets in Wales