The Sounth Glamorgan County Hall (now cardiff County Hall) was built in 1986-87 to the designs of J. R. C. Bethell, South Glamorgan County Architect. Developed on 100 acres of derelict land at Bute East Dock, it was an early keystone project in the regeneration of Cardiff Waterfront. The Coucil's design principles dictated the form of the complex, requiring a low quadrangle form that was human in scale and welcoming to the public, though with a civic grandeur. It provided 24,000m2 of space for new offices, a council chamber, and accommodation for ancillary services.
There are four ranges built around a rectangular courtyard, each of three storeys with shallow-pitched black slate roofs and under roofs. These sloping roof lines are echoed lower down by the continuous metal awnings over the ground storey. The third floor, which projets as a glazed oriel, is supported on slender piers of orange-brown brick. The design, with its varied and intricate froof and facade lines, recalls the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and represents a departure from the grander or more Modernist and Brutalist county halls of many of the other 1974 County Councils. In the Buildings of Wales, John Newman records how County Hall sits within the tradition established by Hillingdon Civic Centre (1973–8, grade II) which ‘showed how to characterise a civic building without making it domineer by its bulk or formal language’. In the Buildings of Wales, John Newman states County Hall sits within the tradition established by Hillingdon Civic Centre (1973–8, grade II) which ‘showed how to characterise a civic building without making it domineer by its bulk or formal language’.
In March 2022, the city council gave outline planning permission for the redevelopment of the Bute East Dock and Atlantic Wharf site as part of a masterplan for a new indoor entertainment arena, which would ultimately see the Country Hall demolished for new housing and a hotel complex. A listing application was made by the 20th Century Society, who put County Hall on their 'At Risk' list for 2023, buut the building was rejected as not meeting listing criteria in 2024.
S Fielding RCAHMW January 2025
Refs:
John Newman 'Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan', 1995, p. 266