Former Market Hall, Tywyn

Former Market Hall, Tywyn

This building was completed in 1898, replacing a market hall from the 1860s. The new hall was proposed in March 1892 but progress was slow, despite local entrepreneur and MP John Corbett offering £500 towards the project and donating the site. In 1894 the council agreed to borrow £700 for the project.

Old photo of Tywyn market hallDavid Gillart was appointed to design the building. His plans included a stable and cart shed, for use by farmers attending the market. Refrigerators weren’t available at the time. The plans featured louvre vents in the gables and skylights on the north side only, to ventilate the hall and keep it cool in summer.

Attached to the western end of the hall (to the left of the front entrance) you can see the former caretaker’s residence and first-floor council room.

There were more delays and cost rises before the building was constructed, mostly in 1897. It was officially opened in August 1898, on the same day that John Corbett gifted the promenade and shelter to the town.

The clock, by Smith of Derby, was installed in the building’s tower just in time for the opening. Public subscriptions had raised £60 for a new town clock during Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrations in 1897. John Corbett donated £70 for the clock.

The National Provincial Bank of England had arranged, before the opening, to rent rooms here as offices. Among the first market traders in the building was Hugh Hughes, who sold salmon from the river Dysynni. He also sold ice!

Groups sometimes held meetings in the building. One well-attended public meeting here, in 1903, was a protest at magistrates’ refusal to renew the licence of the refreshment rooms at Tywyn railway station. The temperance movement was campaigning to reduce alcohol consumption, but vicar Titus Lewis said at the meeting that the increase in drunkenness was a result of closing pubs, and that the refreshment rooms were convenient for passengers.

Today the market hall is home to independent businesses including Clock Tower Books.

Postcode: LL36 9BY    View Location Map