There’s no such thing as destiny. There are only different choices. Some choices are easy, some aren’t. Those are the really important ones, the ones that define us as people.
Walter Sparrow, The Number 23
Two Dragons Garden, Treborth Botanic Garden
17 October 2020
Treborth, Bangor
SH 55240 71098; 53.21714°N, 4.16947°W
Chinese Walking Stick Bamboo
17 October 2020
Bog Garden, Treborth Botanic Garden,
Treborth, Bangor
SH 55240 71098; 53.21714°N, 4.16947°W
“Chimonobambusa tumidissinosa
Chinese Walking Stick Bamboo
From Southwest Sichuan and northeast Yunnan (China), has been used for walking sticks since the Han Dynasty. Edible shoots.”
Treborth Botanic Garden
20 May 2017
Treborth, Bangor
SH 55240 71098; 53.21714°N, 4.16947°W
The land for Treborth Botanic Garden was purchased by Bangor University in the 1960s in order to develop a plant collection for its Botany Department. The garden had previously been developed in the 1840s as part of the Chester and Holyhead Railway’s planned tourist destination Britannia Park. This was designed by architect and gardener Sir Joseph Paxton (1803 – 1865) – best known for designing the 1851 Great Exhibition’s Crystal Palace. However, lack of funding led to the project being abandoned.
The botanic garden is host to more than 2,000 native and exotic species and the university maintains six glasshouses on the site. The university provides free access to the grounds to the public throughout the year.
On Bangor Pier
2 April 2017
Garth, Bangor
SH 58451 73224; 53.23710°N, 4.12236°W
Bangor Pier
2 April 2017
Garth, Bangor
SH 58451 73224; 53.23710°N, 4.12236°W
Veillance
26 February 2017
Pontio, Deiniol Road, Bangor
SH 57929 72174; 53.22753°N, 4.12972°W
The Veillance datascape artwork was designed by Llanfairfechan-based artist and design consultant Ronan Devlin, Designer-in-residence at Bangor’s Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre.
“A new interactive artwork that visualises information generated by our networked devices. Our digital devices regularly share information with government agencies and third party companies for both surveillance and commercial purposes.
“Veillance invites you to browse the internet using a device provided in the exhibition. Your searches will be intercepted, your data captured and reconfigured to create an immersive audio-visual experience.
“Your browsing will reveal words that are identified by UK and US global security services as ‘triggers’ for potential suspicious activity. These words appear to leave the screen echoing the journey your information makes from you to outside agencies. A list of websites with which your device is communicating is created in real-time, illustrating the constant communication between you, your data and outside agencies.
“To comply with data protection laws, the artwork intercepts only publicly accessible information from unencrypted websites.”
B&M in the rain
25 February 2017
St David’s Retail Park, Caernarfon Road, Bangor
SH 57090 71100; 53.21766°N, 4.14179°W
Penrhyn Castle
28 December 2016
Llandegai, Bangor
SH 60219 71962; 53.22624°N, 4.09534°W
Dr Zig’s Extraordinary Bubble Shop
14 May 2016
Vaynol Estate, Bangor
SH 53812 69633; 53.20359°N, 4.19017°W
Dr Zig’s was started up in 2011 by Paola Dyboski-Bryant and was named after her son Ziggy who was two years old at the time. The eco-friendly company sells bubble mix and kits and also provides giant bubbles at events such as parties and festivals. Their premises in former dairy buildings on the Vaynol Estate comprise a manufacturing unit, café and shop, outdoor play area and the ‘Bubble Barn’ – a giant bubble venue for parties and events.
Harvey’s, Bangor I
1-2 April 2016
Cyttir Lane, Caernarfon Road, Bangor
SH 56381 69985; 53.20745°N, 4.15191°W
Harvey’s US-style diner and drive-thru outlet in Bangor opened in March 2016, with planning permission having been granted in September 2015. The restaurant was built on open ground next to Tesco Extra to designs by consulting engineers H A Structures. The chain, owned by St Asaph-based family-run business Restaurant 72 Ltd, opened its first restaurant in Llandudno in 2012 and a drive-thru in Rhuddlan in 2014. It also has ambitions for outlets in a further four locations: Menai Bridge, Holyhead, Wrexham and Chester.
Penrhyn Castle
28 March 2016
Llandegai, Bangor
SH 60219 71962; 53.22624°N, 4.09534°W
Tesco, Bangor
27 March 2016
Caernarfon Road, Bangor
SH 56147 69806; 53.20579°N, 4.15532°W
[ 12 March 2016 ] Railway Institute
12 March – 9 April 2016
Euston Road, Bangor
SH 57283 71538; 53.22165°N, 4.13910°W
Bangor’s Railway Institute building was featured in 2012 in a previous article, which provided details of its history. In brief, in its time the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) was the main employer in the city and the West End area, around the station, has many Victorian red-brick terraces that housed the railwaymen and their families. In their midst the Railway Institute was built as a social club in 1898 and the building was extended in 1905.
The social club – which is incidentally no longer exclusively for railway workers – was, owing to increasing debts, obliged to sell the building in 2014 and then rented it from the new owners. (The 424 square-metre two-storey property, whose site covers an area of 0.14 hectares, was advertised with a guide price of £125,000.)
The current owners, Stockport-based developers Kingscrown Properties Ltd, lodged a planning application in June 2015 for the demolition of the existing building and the construction of a three-storey student-accommodation block comprising 27 flats together with a lay-by with parking for seven vehicles.
The planning application portrayed the Institute as an “anti-social nightclub”, which caused some dismay amongst locals as it was used mainly by pensioners for bingo nights. Furthermore, the prospect of the historic building being razed was met by local opposition. An online petition, started in August 2015 by Bangor resident James Johnson, called on Gwynedd Council to make the retention of the building’s facades a condition for the approval of the planning application. The petition garnered 1240 signatures.
In October 2015 Bangor Railway Institute Club was granted planning permission for change of use of the former health clinic in Sackville Road to use as its new premises. Later that month Gwynedd councillors, against the recommendation of the council’s planning officers, rejected Kingscrown Properties’ application to build the new student flats.
Nevertheless, in November 2015 the building’s proprietors notified the council of its intention to proceed with demolition, claiming that the structure had become unsafe and was subject to vandalism. As the building was not listed – when approached with regards to a last-minute request for an emergency listing, heritage body Cadw did not change its previous stance of declining a listing on the grounds of the building’s loss of historical character resulting from various alterations – the council had no powers to prevent demolition. Contractors moved onto the site in January 2016, with all the slates first being removed from the roof. The building itself is currently in the process of being torn down.
Bangor Railway Institute;
Elevations of proposed student accommodation (permission refused);
Impression of proposed student accommodation (permission refused)
Penrhyn Castle
27 February 2016
Llandegai, Bangor
SH 60219 71962; 53.22624°N, 4.09534°W
Bangor Pier
27 February 2016
Viewed from the banks of the Menai Strait, Gorad Road, Bangor
SH 57430 72551; 53.23079°N, 4.13735°W
Plas Rhianfa
27 February 2016
Viewed from the banks of the Menai Strait, Gorad Road, Bangor
SH 57430 72551; 53.23079°N, 4.13735°W
Storiel
30 January 2016
Bangor
SH 58013 72155; 53.22739°N, 4.12845°W
Known locally as Bangor Museum, or Oriel Bangor, Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery was housed in the former Canonry since 1973 and has been run by the county council since 1991. The old Canonry is a Grade II listed building located in Tan-y-Fynwent and was built in 1862 as part of the Cathedral precinct.
The future of the museum has in the past been uncertain – in 2009 it came close to closure but was saved following a public campaign. A £1.4 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant was, however, secured in 2013 as part of the £2.4 million project Engaging Collections: Widening Access to Gwynedd’s Heritage. This is a joint initiative between Gwynedd Council and Bangor University and its aims included moving the museum from the old Canonry to the nearby former Bishop’s Palace and also improving access to the University’s collections.
The Grade II listed Bishop’s Palace, located in Ffordd Gwynedd, is the city’s second oldest surviving building with part of it dating back to around 1500. This was incorporated into the present building, constructed in the late 16th / early 17th centuries and extended in the 18th century. The building was sold in 1900 and became the Town Hall and was renovated in 1960.
With building work starting in March 2014, the premises have now been converted to house the museum and art galleries together with a shop and café. Although it was originally scheduled to open in autumn 2015, the actual opening did not take place until 30 January 2016. As part of the move, the museum has been re-branded as Storiel, a portmanteau word formed from the Welsh words stori (story) and oriel (gallery).
Bangor Museum and Art Gallery (British Listed Buildings);
Town Hall, Bangor (British Listed Buildings);
Bishops Palace Development (Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery)
