The Colonnade, Llandudno
This walkway was built to alleviate unemployment, use surplus roadstone and provide shelter for up to 10,000 people. Lord Mostyn, who had donated the land, formally opened the colonnade on 31 March 1932.
The aerial photo, courtesy of the Welsh Government, shows the colonnade in 1941, during the Second World War. The pre-war photos are courtesy of Conwy Archive Service.
The £6,500 structure was built in the Doric style using reinforced concrete and local stone. It featured staircases to the upper level and electric lighting.
The idea came from Mostyn Estates agent GA Humphries in 1928. The Great Depression had caused mass unemployment. The UK’s Unemployment Grants Committee gave Llandudno council a loan to build the colonnade with local labour.
Rock had been taken from the hillside here for local road improvements. There was enough left over to build the colonnade alongside the road leading to Happy Valley, a popular leisure area which lacked shelter from heavy rain showers. A proposed large shelter in Happy Valley wasn’t built because it would have been too intrusive. The colonnade solved the problem.
Nobody in 1932 could have predicted that the colonnade would provide overnight shelter in August 1943 for some of the many holidaymakers who came by train to Llandudno but were unable to find accommodation. The Inland Revenue and other organisations had been evacuated to Llandudno for the war and were using many of the town’s hotels for offices and staff lodgings. Police helped some of the holidaymakers find accommodation.
In 1957 six boys were fined for damaging 132 light bulbs at the colonnade. The magistrates said they had expected to see “boys of low intellect” enter the courtroom and were “surprised at the type of boys you are and of the homes from which you come”.
The colonnade was extended with a new section at the lower end during a £2.5m programme of improvements, announced in 1997, which included widening the adjacent road. The original walkway was listed in 2001.
In 2025 work began on repairing the concrete, reinstating power and lighting and installing new benches on the upper deck, aided by grants from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund and Welsh Government’s Brilliant Basics Fund.
Postcode: LL30 2LR View Location Map
Website of Conwy Archive Service
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