History
Classical pavilion shelters designed by borough surveyor Major Hinchscliff and built in the late 1920s or early 1930s, similar to the 1923 shelters at Barry Island by the same architect.
The late Victorian and Edwardian prosperity of Southeast Wales was based on coal, and to a greater extent than other UK coal fields on exporting coal to international markets, a business model which never fully recovered from the interruption of the First World War. Barry had been developed in 1884 as an alternative port to the congested docks of Cardiff, although from its earliest days the train line to Barry was also used by passengers for day trips to the seaside.
By the mid-1920s Welsh coal had lost much of its South American market to the USA and its European market to Germany, which was compelled to give away its coal for free as reparations, leading to rising unemployment in Wales amongst miners and dock workers alike. In 1925 Dan Evans, President of the Barry Chamber of Trade, said he was “much more hopeful of the future of Barry with regard to its possibilities as a seaside resort than … in connection with its industrial future”, and money available from the government for unemployment relief was directed towards developing tourist infrastructure. Cold Knap Park with its boating lake and swimming Lido was created on former farmland using money from the Unemployed Grants Committee. The pavilions were not included in the earliest plans for the park but were built by 1936 at the latest. Historic photos show that the central staircase in front of each Pavilion originally had balustrades like the ones around the tops of the Pavilions, and that the lawn areas between the pavilions and the lake had miniature stone circles, features which have been lost. The Lido closed in 1996 and was infilled with its ancillary buildings demolished in 2004.
Exterior
Pair of concrete open pavilions in Classical idiom set into the bank with flanking staircases descending from the promenade to the boating lake. 8 forward bays divided by single Tuscan columns with three columns at corners. Open side bays terminate with one and a half columns against rear wall. Architrave and cornice with no frieze. Flat roof forms a wide platform extending into the park from the promenade, bounded by concrete balustrading on three sides with thirteen vase-shaped balusters to each bay divided by cuboid posts. Three side bays at balustrade level. The East Pavilion has only twelve balusters in the rear most bays, while the West has a full complement of thirteen. Otherwise they are largely identical. Three flights of stairs from Promenade to a mid-level in front of the pavilions, then five shorter flights down to the Marine Lake, the additional flights being at the midpoint of the pavilions and without balustrades. Surviving balustrades to the three main flights consist of rough concrete blocks with smooth tops curving down between posts, which have pyramidal tops, five posts each side to the upper flights and three posts each side to the shorter lower ones.
Reasons for Listing
Listed for its special architectural interest as an integral component and visual centrepiece of the registered historic park and garden Cold Knap Park, and a good example of a well-designed and well-preserved feature of definite architectural quality. Also included for its historic interest as a product of unemployment relief in the interwar period associated with Barry’s development from a coal-port into a seaside resort.
External Links
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
Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)