A – Z OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
P
is for Portmeirion
Today we travel to North Wales
To
Portmeirion, Gwynedd
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View
of the Central Plaza
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Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd,
North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925
– 1975 in the style of an Italian village.
It is now owned by a charitable trust.
Portmeirion’s designer, Sir
Clough Williams-Ellis drew on his love of an Italian village and 1925 – 1975 he
incorporated fragments of demolished buildings, including works by a number of
other architects. The architectural
bricolage and deliberately fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence
on the development of post modernism in architecture in the late 20th
century.
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Clough
Williams-Ellis
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Battery
square in Portmeirion. Author: Chris Jones
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http://northwalestoday.com/portmeirion.html
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View
of Castell Deudraeth near Portmeirion. Author: Chris Jones
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In 1931 Williams-Ellis bought
from his uncle, Sir Osmund Williams, BT, , the Victorian crenellated mansion
Castell Deudraeth with the intention of incorporating it into the Portmeirion
hotel complex but the intervention of the war and other problems prevented
this.
Williams-Ellis had always
considered the Castell to be “the largest and most imposing single building on
the Portmeirion Estate" and sought ways to incorporate it. Eventually,
with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional
Development Fund as well as the Wales
Tourist Board, his original aims were achieved and Castell Deudraeth was
opened as an 11 bedroom hotel and restaurant on August 20, 2001 by Welsh opera
singer Bryn Terfel.
The iconic 1960’s television
show The Prisoner used Portmeirion as its location for “The Village.”
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The Prisoner
I am not a number. I am a free man
Patrick McGoohan not only starred as Number Six, the leading role in The
Prisoner, he was also the creator and driving force behind the 17 episode
series. The series was financed by ITC Entertainment with David Tomblin as the
Producer and George Markstein as script editor.
A
romantic get-a-way
A long weekend including Monday
Recharge
the batteries
I
do hope she agrees
I
need to say sorry
Take
away the worry
She
is the love of my life
I’ll
ask her to be my wife
A
grand room in Castell Deudraeth
A
lift so she won’t be out of breath
As
we enter the penthouse suite
Champagne
on the patio, we gaze at the street
The
ring is offered up to my sweetheart
She accepts; we will
never be apart.
Portmeirion sounds like a charming village. Thanks for taking me there. Have a great week end.
ReplyDeleteWhat interesting history of the village. The colorful facades do look very Italian.
ReplyDelete(And by the way, here's another weird thing with Blogger: your K post just arrived, and when I clicked on it, it took me to MY dashboard. What's up with that??? Oh, and I didn't get anything between D and K either, just those 2.)
Wendy at Jollett Etc.