Laura Place, Aberystwyth

William Edward Powell was a landowner and Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiganshire from 1816 until shortly before his death in 1854. He was made High Sheriff in 1810 and Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire in 1817.[1] He lived at Nanteos and developed Laura Place in the 1820s; No. 11 being the Powell townhouse in Aberystwyth and No. 12 serving as the estate office.[2] The remainder was speculative building development. Powell engaged George Stanley Repton to design the Assembly Rooms, intended as a gathering place for the fashionable visitors to Regency Aberystwyth.[3][lower-alpha 1] The town was developed throughout the 19th century as a seaside resort, and was publicised as the "Brighton of Wales".[5] Cadw suggest that Repton may also have undertaken the design of other buildings in Laura Place, for example No.s 5 and 6.[6] The development was named in honour of Powell's first wife, Laura Edwyna, who died in 1822.[7]

The Assembly Rooms subsequently served as the first, temporary, home of the National Library of Wales, and now is part of the Music Department of Aberystwyth University.[8][9] The majority of the other buildings in Laura Place remain private residences, although many have been sub-divided into flats.[10] Some of the houses were part of the university estate, but most have been sold in the last ten years.[11]

Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield, in their Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion volume in the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, describe Laura Place as comprising "the finest Georgian houses of the town."[2] Cadw considers it a "striking and unusual example of sophisticated urban Georgian building".[12] The houses are of two storeys, with attics and basements, and with roofs of Welsh slate.[6] The two rows face the Church of St Michael and All Angels. The original church was designed for William Powell by Edward Haycock Sr., who also undertook work at Nanteos.[13][14][lower-alpha 2] No.s 1-9, and No.s 11 and 12 Laura Place are each separately designated by Cadw, the statutory body with responsibility for the listing of buildings in Wales, as a Grade II* listed building.[16][17][18][19][20][6][21][22][23][24][25] The Assembly Rooms are also listed at Grade II*.[3] This is the second-highest grade and indicates "particularly important buildings of more than special interest".[26]

• Cadw (2013). Aberystwyth: Understanding Urban Character (PDF). Cardiff: Cadw. ISBN 978-1-857-60304-0.
• Colvin, Howard (1978) [1956]. A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600–1840. London: John Murray. ISBN 978-0-719-53328-0.
• Lloyd, Thomas; Orbach, Julian; Scourfield, Robert (2006). Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. The Buildings of Wales. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10179-9.

• Media related to Laura Place, Aberystwyth at Wikimedia Commons