Architectural Good Manners
Portmeirion is a magical place. Clinging desperately to the side of a steep Welsh valley, the sugary colours of the stucco stand in counterpoint to the dark, lustrous greens of the surrounding woodland. The sweeping vista of the bay carries your eye to the brooding hills above Harlech and out beyond the lighthouse you can see infinity on a clear day.
Born of the imagination of Sir Clough Willaims-Ellis (and I say born because it has an organic feel to it that discounts words like built and designed), it shows that architecture can be approachable, entertaining and gentle on the eye despite a riot of colour. A true eccentric, Williams-Ellis became something of a masonry magpie, accepting donations of bits of building that no-one wanted anymore leaving Portmeirion, in his own words, as a bit of a "home for fallen buildings".
We had the good fortune, after an off the cuff remark by a good friend, to spend a few days there this last week. Of course, you can't visit the Village without some reference to the Prisoner, the show which made it nationally and internationally famous. I'd never actually seen the Prisoner before we booked to go, so I had dutifully sat and watched the entire series on video (yes, video) once we had. The authorities at Portmeirion do kindly show an episode of the Prisoner on their private guest channel at 6 every day, which made us smile in the way that these gentle, knowing touches always do.
There are places where you instantly feel that you belong and I certainly believe in genius loci, the spirit of place. Like certain other locations we have visited over the years, you can feel that this one has been, and still is, greatly loved. The chance to stay in one of the Village houses and have the run of the place after closing time was very special. To sit on top of the Colonnade and watch the sun go down over the Piazza in perfect stillness was only one highlight of an amazing few days; to see sights that normal visitors can't because they cannot pass the "residents only" signs was even more so. The entire Village became our playground and we small children again, climbing, exploring, discovering, laughing at each new find, each glorious new perspective.
So while Portmeirion is most definitely worth visiting, it is even more worth while discovering by becoming your own miniature version of the Prisoner. But as someone else once said, once you've seen the place, you really have to wonder why he ever wanted to leave.
Born of the imagination of Sir Clough Willaims-Ellis (and I say born because it has an organic feel to it that discounts words like built and designed), it shows that architecture can be approachable, entertaining and gentle on the eye despite a riot of colour. A true eccentric, Williams-Ellis became something of a masonry magpie, accepting donations of bits of building that no-one wanted anymore leaving Portmeirion, in his own words, as a bit of a "home for fallen buildings".
We had the good fortune, after an off the cuff remark by a good friend, to spend a few days there this last week. Of course, you can't visit the Village without some reference to the Prisoner, the show which made it nationally and internationally famous. I'd never actually seen the Prisoner before we booked to go, so I had dutifully sat and watched the entire series on video (yes, video) once we had. The authorities at Portmeirion do kindly show an episode of the Prisoner on their private guest channel at 6 every day, which made us smile in the way that these gentle, knowing touches always do.
There are places where you instantly feel that you belong and I certainly believe in genius loci, the spirit of place. Like certain other locations we have visited over the years, you can feel that this one has been, and still is, greatly loved. The chance to stay in one of the Village houses and have the run of the place after closing time was very special. To sit on top of the Colonnade and watch the sun go down over the Piazza in perfect stillness was only one highlight of an amazing few days; to see sights that normal visitors can't because they cannot pass the "residents only" signs was even more so. The entire Village became our playground and we small children again, climbing, exploring, discovering, laughing at each new find, each glorious new perspective.
So while Portmeirion is most definitely worth visiting, it is even more worth while discovering by becoming your own miniature version of the Prisoner. But as someone else once said, once you've seen the place, you really have to wonder why he ever wanted to leave.