page_title: Architecture of Wales
section_title: Public buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Wales / Neoclassicism and Greek revival architecture / Public buildings
caption_attribution_description: Cymraeg: Canolfan Dylan Thomas, AbertaweEnglish: Swansea Old Town Hall, now the Dylan Thomas Centre This is a photo of listed building number 11643.
context_page_description: Architecture of Wales is an overview of architecture in Wales from the Medieval period to the present day, excluding castles and fortifications, ecclesiastical architecture and industrial architecture. It covers the history of domestic, commercial, and administrative architecture.
context_section_description: The Greek revival style was chosen for many public buildings in Wales. Swansea Museum of 1839–1841, originally the Royal Institution of South Wales is a finely detailed and well balanced example with a three bay portico supported on Ionic columns. It is faced in Bath ashlar stone. It was built to designs by Frederick Long, a Liverpool architect.
   
  A rather later use of Greek revival is the Shire Hall at Caernarfon of almost oversized proportions and facing Caernarfon Castle. It was built 1867–1869 by the County Surveyor, John Thomas. It is of seven bays with a central doric portico with a pediment surmounted with the blindfold figure of justice Other work in the Greek Revival style in Wales includes Brecon Shire Hall (now Brecon Museum) by Thomas Henry Wyatt and Bridgend Town Hall by David Vaughan. Bridgend Town, a tragic loss, demolished as recently as 1971, was built in the style of a Greek temple with Doric columns supporting the portico in antis.
  An early and unusual combination of Grecian and Italianate architecture is Swansea Old Town Hall. It is described by Newman as as the noblest classical building in Swansea ......a grandiose Corinthian Palazzo.  It was built to designs by Thomas Taylor of London between 1848 and 1852 which incorporated the earlier Town Hall of 1825– 27 by Thomas Bowen. The interior of the building,  which is now the Dylan Thomas Centre, was extensively rebuilt in 1993–1994
caption: Swansea Old Town Hall
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