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All Saints parish hall, designed by John Coates Carter (1859-1927), and Grade II listed. The foundation stone was laid in 1906, and the hall was built in a quintessentially Arts and Crafts idiom — as John Newman says, "tinged with whimsy" (112), but also under the influence of Richardsonian romanesque, i.e. with some of its character inspired by the work of the pioneering American architect, Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886). The structure is principally of rock-faced Pennant sandstone with Bath stone dressings, the chimneys, with their understated ornamentation, are of dark blue brick and the roofs are of red tiles.
The front (north-east) elevation comprises a long open porch, described in the listing text as an Italianate loggia. Its roof is supported at one end by a semicircular archway and along its length by 45◦ angled beams resting on corbels set into the main structure. The entrance doorway of the hall, set beneath a broad semicircular archway at the other end of the porch, is guarded by a playfully amusing squat circular tower or turret into which the porch roof merges. A dormer window breaks the roofline where it meets the roof of the main hall. This front, as shown in the top photograph here, is the part that has rightly been described by Newman as owing "a good deal to H.H. Richardson" (496).
On the sides of the building the main fenestration of the gables comprises large semicircular windows loosely styled on the Diocletian form of ancient Rome, whilst under the roof of the long hall are uninterrupted lengths of dormer style windows. The whole building is characterful and picturesque, and well deserves its Cadw listing as one of Coates Carter's "most important works."
Links to Related Material
- Lululaund,in Bushey, Herts, a house designed by Richardson in 1886 for the artist Sir Herbert von Herkomer
- Craigdorrach Castle, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (1889), another earlier example of Richardsonian Romanesque
Bibliography
All Saints Parish Hall, Penarth. British Listed Buildings. Web. 6 November 2024.
Full Report for Listed Buildings. Cadw (Welsh Government's historic environment service). Web. 6 November 2024.
Newman, John. The Buildings of Wales – Glamorgan (Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan and West Glamorgan). London: Penguin, 1995.
Created 6 November 2024