Glamorgan Building

Glamorgan Building
General information
Architectural style Beaux-Arts
Town or city Cardiff
Country Wales, United Kingdom
Completed 1912; extension 1932
Cost £67,724
(extension: £54,054)[1]
Client Glamorgan County Council
Design and construction
Architect Thomas A. Moodie
E. Vincent Harris

The Glamorgan Building is an Edwardian former county hall located in Cardiff, Wales. It is situated in the civic centre in Cathays Park, on King Edward VII Avenue. Formerly the county hall of Glamorgan, the building was acquired by Cardiff University in 1997 and is now home to the university's School of Social Sciences and the School of Planning and Geography.

Design, construction and history

Designed by Vincent Harris OBE (1876–1971) and Thomas Anderson Moodie (1874–1948), who won the design competition for the building in 1909,[2] the original building was completed in 1911 and opened in 1912. Outside the building, serving as reminders of Glamorgan's source of wealth, are two groups of statues by Albert Hodge (1875–1918), one representing navigation and the other coal mining.[3]

Statues outside the Glamorgan Building
Minerva, representing mining
Dark image with light coming from a circular opening at the top of the funnel
Neptune in a chariot, representing navigation

Due to the Local Government Act 1929, which transferred more powers to local authorities, a large extension was built to the rear of the University of Wales Registry to a design by Ivor Jones and Percy Thomas. This opened in 1932.[1]

The building housed Glamorgan County Council until 1974 and Mid Glamorgan County Council from 1974 to 1996, and houses the former Council Chamber and Committee Rooms. It was also home to the Glamorgan Record Office from 1939 until the end of 2009, when it relocated to a new, purpose-built office in Leckwith next to the Cardiff City football stadium, becoming Glamorgan Archives.

Between 1974 and 1996, Cardiff was additionally the administrative headquarters for South Glamorgan County Council, but this authority had its own purpose-built county hall in Atlantic Wharf in Cardiff Bay, built in 1986/7.

References

  1. 1 2 Chappell, Edgar L. (1946). Cardiff's Civic Centre: A historical guide. Priory Press., pp. 41
  2. ↑ Thomas Anderson Moodie, Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  3. ↑ Albert H. Hodge (1875–1918), Website of Bob Speel. Retrieved 2012-03-13.

Coordinates: 51°29′09″N 3°10′53″W / 51.4859°N 3.1815°W / 51.4859; -3.1815

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