Whitefriars, Llanfairfechan

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Logo of Llanfairfechan Town Council

Link to French translationWhitefriars, by HL North

Photo of Whitefriars in 1933Whitefriars was designed by Herbert Luck North and built in 1933 for a retired seaman, Captain Bibby and his young wife. It was a small cottage in the Arts and Crafts style (pictured right in 1933).

The cottage, which cost £1,000, had one large and one small guest bedroom and a small servants’ room downstairs. The lounge, going from front to rear, is panelled in oak. There was a garage at the rear of the cottage.

Following Captain Bibby’s death, his wife remarried and had a son. She was now Mrs Rigby-Jones. She and her husband then asked the architectural practice North and Padmore to make alterations to the house. By then the practice was run by Perceval Mitchell ("Paddy") Padmore, Mr North having died in 1941. Mr Padmore was also Mr North’s son-in-law, and continued the North ethos in his works in Llanfairfechan.

In 1950 Mr Padmore oversaw the building of a large garage at the rear of Whitefriars, with a chauffeur/handyman’s flat above. The house was expanded by the building of a gable upstairs, removal of the servants’ room and joining of the original garage to be a room off the kitchen. Since those alterations, the house has stayed the same and has a particularly pretty aspect to the north, facing the sea.

The current owners have made the garden look especially neat – another aspect of housing which Herbert North felt strongly about. The garden isn’t open to the public, but please enjoy the view from the path.

With thanks to Andrew Hinchliff and Pam Phillips

Postcode: LL33 0BP    View Location Map

Navigation next buttonTo continue the HL North Arts & Crafts tour, walk a short way east along the coast path. The next QR code is on a white garden fence
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