Buildings of Newport (2)

Civic Centre

Commissioned by Newport Corporation in 1936. A u-plan complex, facing SE, set on a sloping site. Elevations of unbonded Portland stone in panels. Basement level of brown rock-faced Derbyshire sandstone. Roofs of brown pantiles, with deep coffered eaves. Steel casement windows. SE front of three storeys, with taller advanced two-storey centre block containing council chamber: five bays. Centre block has tall upper windows with balcony to centre three bays; rusticated ground floor. Tall tapering clock tower set above central block on low square base; pyramidal roof. Tower has panel-like raised sides, simple clock. Three small square openings below eaves to each side. Flanks of centre block of seven bays, the outer bays slightly advanced, with hipped roofs. Lower two floors have parapet roofs and project in front of end bays. Long wings, stepped down the slope in three stages, 1+11+6 bays. Flat roofs behind parapets; rock-faced plinths. Lowest blocks have SE entrance facades each of two storeys and five bays, the centre entrance bay higher and advanced, with pyramidal roof. Entrances set within giant round-arched openings with glazing above, similar to those at Cambridge University Library (by Giles Gilbert Scott). Openings have cable-mouldings. Projecting door surrounds of polished black granite within Portland stone frames. Carved and painted shields above. NE elevation stepped up slope in three two storey blocks, each slightly advanced of one another. Six bay lower block. Middle block of eleven bays with entrance within giant central opening; door surround as above. Upper block of five bays, with similar door; three bays slightly recessed to the right. SW elevation has similar upper block, its entrance with shield and date of 1939 above. Nine bay middle section, the taller pyramid-roofed centre bay containing entrance within giant cable-moulded arch, as SE elevation. Six bay lower block. NW elevation contains current entrance. Central entrance range of fifteen bays, two storeys. Upper storey set behind parapet roof as to SE. Wide centre bay with tower above, containing entrance, set within giant arch: later glazing and balcony. Five bay returns to centre block to single bays which have round-arched service entries to SE court. Range to left of nine bays; right range of eight bays with delivery doors to centre.