Bodlondeb civic offices, Conwy

button-theme-evaclink to welsh translation link to french translationBodlondeb civic offices, Conwy

The civic offices of Conwy County Borough Council occupy the former Bodlondeb Hall, built in 1876-1877 for Albert Wood (pictured). His fortune came from making anchors and cables at Saltney, Chester, for ships including Brunel’s Great Eastern, the world’s biggest ship at the time. The Royal Navy also used Wood’s Patent Anchor.

Portrait of Albert WoodAn earlier house named Bodlondeb was built in 1742 by Thomas Holland, from a rich local family. It was closer to the estuary than the present building. Geologist and scientist Abraham Mills died while staying at Bodlondeb in 1828, as you can read on this page in our mini-tour of Conwy churchyard.

Visitors to Albert Wood’s Bodlondeb included composer Sir Edward Elgar and prime minister David Lloyd George (he and Albert were Liberals). Queen Victoria once wanted to stay here, but the house was too small for her retinue. Electric lighting was installed in 1906. The photo shows a party outside the house when King George V was crowned in 1911.

Albert died in 1932. The Wood family trustees decided to dispose of Bodlondeb in 1936 but declined to sell to the borough council, which wanted to develop the estate as a public open space. The council made a compulsory purchase order, confirmed by the government in London. The story of Bodlondeb’s gardens and park is on this page.

Lloyd George presided over the opening ceremony in July 1937. The house had already become offices for the mayor and council staff, including the electricity, harbour, health and engineer’s departments.

Photo of Bodlondeb in 1911In 1941, 35 works of art from the Williamson Gallery in Birkenhead were moved to Conwy to escape German bombing. Most were hung in the public spaces at Bodlondeb and included works by Sir David Young Cameron, John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough. Two watercolours by JMW Turner, Vesuvius Angry and Brenver Glacier, graced the walls of the Sanitary Inspector’s office! Three oil paintings by Arthur Friedenson, Mark Fisher and EA Hornel were kept in the council chamber at Conwy’s Guildhall.

The Bodlondeb building was extended in the late 20th century, in a style which was in sympathy with the original.

With thanks to Adrian Hughes, of the Home Front Museum, Llandudno, and to Conwy County Borough Council for the old photos

Postcode:  LL32 8DU    View Location Map

Footnotes: More about the Wood family

Albert Wood played an active role in civic life in Conwy. In 1895 he gave the town the fountain and statue of Llywelyn Fawr which you can see in Lancaster Square. His initials are still visible above the doors to the schoolroom he provided in Rosehill Street, now the Church Hall.

In 1900 he was one of the magistrates who refused to grant a new licence for the Royal Oak Inn, in Lower Gate Street, in defiance of a High Court ruling that the licence must be renewed.

Also living at Bodlondeb were Albert’s brother George Swinford Wood, a noted artist, and George’s wife Mary and their children. Mary died in 1936, the last of the family living at Bodlondeb. She was vice-president of the Gwynedd Ladies’ Art Society. It promoted female artists (banned from the Royal Cambrian Academy at the time), including through building a dedicated gallery (Oriel Mostyn) in Llandudno.