Author Topic: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel  (Read 10346 times)

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Offline AliceLlandudno

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Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« on: July 05, 2012, 07:49:18 pm »
Hi everyone

Im attempting to do some research on the Penmorfa/ Gogarth Abbey hotel.

Does anyone have any pictures of the inside? or outside even? Or news articles that may help me?

Id love to know what it was  like inside? Especially inside the penmorfa (how many rooms it had before it was turned into gogarth abbey for instance)

If anyone could help me Id really really appreciate it

Many thanks

Nicki xxx

Offline AliceLlandudno

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Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2012, 07:59:57 pm »
Hi everyone

Im attempting to do some research on the Penmorfa/ Gogarth Abbey hotel.

Does anyone have any pictures of the inside? or outside even? Or news articles that may help me?

Id love to know what it was  like inside? Especially inside the penmorfa (how many rooms it had before it was turned into gogarth abbey for instance)

If anyone could help me Id really really appreciate it

Many thanks

Nicki xxx


Offline DaveR

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2012, 09:31:05 pm »
I had a Christmas meal there about a year before it closed. Despite being assured that there was going to be many other people there, our party were the only people in the hotel! The whole place was looking a bit sad by then, there didnt seem to have been any investment for years. The main entrance entered the old Penmorfa house on the first floor level via an external staircase, in what would originally have been the old hallway of the house - I recall old wooden paneling etc. From that hallway, the staircase (an original feature) to the upper floors was straight ahead, the entrance to the restaurant was on the left and the entrance to the bar/dancefloor was on the right.

Some photos of the exterior I took here:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=11631105@N00&q=penmorfa

Offline AliceLlandudno

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2012, 09:52:29 pm »
Many thanks for your reply!
you didnt happen to take any pictures during your christmas meal there?
x

Offline DaveR

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2012, 10:11:54 pm »
I did actually, but I just looked through them all and they dont show much of the interior at all. I can't really show them without the permission of the people visible in the photos, either!

Offline Hugo

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2012, 10:58:35 pm »
This is a photo of a watercolour painting done by Dean Henry Liddell of his house Penmorfa.    I don't know exactly when it was painted but it must have been in the 1860's.
If you look at the painting you can see that the Marine Drive around the Great Orme was not even built then, that was opened in 1878.

Offline suepp

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2012, 11:47:43 pm »
To be honest I thought the interior was much like any other hotel on the prom, with the added extensions and function rooms quite modern in design. A couple of family members worked there in its later days, I remember the kitchens looking quite rundown. Whenever a bit of tiling fell off the wall the staff would say "that's Alice!"  The plumbing was quite noisy too.

Offline AliceLlandudno

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2012, 04:32:54 pm »
Hi
yes i have seen the painting its amazing isnt it?
Is there anyway you could block out the people in the pictures in paint? anything at all that I can view will be helpful :)
Thanks for the comments guys x

Offline Allegro

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2012, 03:24:22 pm »
It's very sad that such a beautiful and historical property has been knocked down. This should never have been allowede to happen. Why wasn't it a listed building?  :(

Offline claretdavid

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #9 on: October 17, 2012, 03:03:35 pm »
I thought it might be worth adding that the Gogarth Abbey converted the old stable block to self catering apartment(s??) in the latter days of its existence. We stayed there in 1995 when it was obviously quite new and was very well cared for. Returning in 1998 the place seemed as if it hadn't had much TLC and was already beginning to feel quite shabby inside. By the time I visited Llandudno again the stable block and much of the former hotel had disappeared.

Offline Rob

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    • Penmorfa Paintings
Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #10 on: November 10, 2013, 07:51:13 am »
Hi, if you are still interested I have some pictures; also would be interested in anything you managed to find out about Gogarth....

Offline Bedelia

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #11 on: June 17, 2014, 10:15:23 am »
I had a Christmas meal there about a year before it closed. Despite being assured that there was going to be many other people there, our party were the only people in the hotel! The whole place was looking a bit sad by then, there didnt seem to have been any investment for years. The main entrance entered the old Penmorfa house on the first floor level via an external staircase, in what would originally have been the old hallway of the house - I recall old wooden paneling etc. From that hallway, the staircase (an original feature) to the upper floors was straight ahead, the entrance to the restaurant was on the left and the entrance to the bar/dancefloor was on the right.

Some photos of the exterior I took here:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=11631105@N00&q=penmorfa

I stayed there with my mum in 1999 (posted about it on the Early Hotels thread).  V disappointed to see how it had declined from mum's memory of its heyday in the 50s.  It seemed the management was deliberately running it down for sale (v shabby fixtures & fittings and terrible  food), despite charging 3/4* prices.  We had the ground floor bay-windowed room on the far right in photos of the frontage (see DaveR's photos above); the wind whistled in through the doorway in the hall the whole time.  We ended up calling it the Bates Motel.  Depressing experience. 

We were not surprised to find that it had been sold for flats on subsequent visits. 

Offline SteveH

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Re: Penmorfa/Gogarth Abbey Hotel
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2022, 10:21:09 am »
THE GOGARTH Abbey Hotel, once located on the West Shore of Llandudno, is a site that now lies empty.

The original Penmorfa site was built in 1862 as a Christmas and summer retreat for the family of Alice Liddell, for whom author Lewis Carroll is said to have written Alice in Wonderland.

The book's sequel Through the Looking Glass also refers to local landmarks.

Constructed in a Neo-Gothic style, by 1890 the house had been expanded, becoming the Gogarth Abbey Hotel.

Further expansion occurred at some point before 1913, with Ordnance Survey maps showing the complex made up of multiple houses.

The hotel later appeared in advertising, being used in the 1970s for scenes in PG Tips adverts, in which chimpanzees were dressed up as humans.

The hotel was demolished in 2007, leaving just the original Victorian holiday home, which followed a year later.

The land remains derelict, with no plans in place for the hotel’s replacement.

cont/photos  https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19950498.gogarth-abbey-hotel-llandudno-stood/?ref=rss&IYA-reg=a05105fc-304d-4c50-9807-edab51f779a4
« Last Edit: February 25, 2022, 10:28:41 am by Ian »