Gorsefield, by HL North

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link_to_welsh_translationlink_to_french_translationGorsefield, Llanfairfechan seafront

Gorsefield is one of a pair of semi-detached houses designed by the Arts & Crafts architect Herbert Luck North. The pair was built c.1906 for the local estate agent R Arthur Jones. A detached house by North, Whitefriars, built 1933, can be seen a little further west along the shore.

Unusually, this pair of houses and its neighbours front onto the seashore footpath rather than the local road, which is relegated to the far end of the back gardens.

Photo of Hebert North and familyThe exterior of Gorsefield features a number of typical North details: steep gables, small-pane cottage windows and roughcast walls. The interior is planned so that the ground floor can either be one long room or can be divided by folding doors to give a room each side of the central hall, an ingenious arrangement used by North in a number of his houses and one that anticipated the modern open-plan.

About the architect:

Herbert Luck North (1871-1941) worked for the church architect J D Sedding and for Sir Edwin Lutyens before returning around 1901 to Llanfairfechan, his family’s home since 1881. The photo on the right shows him in Llanfairfechan with his wife and grand-daughter.

He divided his time between domestic and church work, not all of it in North Wales, and he wrote two books about the old churches and cottages of Snowdonia. Llanfairfechan has the biggest concentration of his buildings, notably The Close, a garden-suburb-inspired estate of houses built on family land between 1923 and 1941.

North’s buildings exemplify the sort of work carried out by many provincial architects practising in the early 20th century: modest, little recognised but excellent in its quiet way.

With thanks to Adam Voelcker, author of ‘Herbert Luck North: Arts & Crafts Architecture for Wales’

Where is this HiPoint?

Postcode: LL33 0BP

Navigation next buttonTo continue the HL North Arts & Crafts tour, walk past lake and over river, turn right under railway and A55, then take third left (Park Crescent). Next QR code is outside house after Park Crescent turns to right
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