History

Britannia Park was designed as a setting for the planned magnificent Britannia Hotel, aimed primarily to serve railway travellers on the Holyhead route to and from Ireland. The hotel never reached more than foundation level, but the park was laid out to the design of Joseph Paxton shortly after the completion of the Britannia Bridge in c1850-60. It now serves the University of Wales as Botanic Gardens.

Exterior

Piers of limestone freestone, and gates of iron. One pier each side of the driveway, a pedestrian gate on the S, and low ashlar coped walls curve forward each side to similar terminal piers, creating a semicircular approach. The piers are broached and chamfered on four sides, the chamfers increasing at each stage until the piers are octagonal at the top, and terminated with a weathered cap. A sunk quatrefoil cross is carved on the main faces.

Only the pedestrian gate survives in-situ. This is of square bar iron, with bands of quatrefoils at the top, middle and bottom, and fleur-de-lys terminals.

Reasons for Listing

Included as an example of handsome park gates, of group value with the lodge (q.v.) and as an important element of special interest in Britannia Park.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29496370

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)