The Shire Hall () is a municipal building in Newport, south

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

. It is a Grade II

listed building 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 ...

History

Following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1888 The Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales. It came into effect ...

, 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) () is the governing body for the Monmouthshire principal area – one of the unitary authorities of Wales. The current unitary authority was created in 1996 and covers the eastern ...

. 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 a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

; there was triple window on the first floor and gable above with a roundel containing the words: "Monmouthshire County Council 1889".

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

, has described it as an "impressively-designed

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

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 controver ...

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 and completed the development in 2014.

References

{{Government buildings in Wales Edwardian architecture in the United Kingdom 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