The former palace of the Bishops of Bangor. Excavation to the east suggests that there has been a palace on this site since the thirteenth-fourteenth century if not earlier. The earliest part of the present building is a timber framed hall with solar and service range, dated to around 1500. This was refaced and incorporated into the present late sixteenth-early seventeenth century building. A rear range was added in the eighteenth century and there have been more recent modifications and other alterations. In the early nineteenth century the river was canalised and park like environs were woven about the Palace. It was sold in 1900 and eventually became the Town (City?) Hall.
The Palace is a low two storey building with attics lit by dormers in the slate roof. It is U-plan, the oldest part being the western end. The walls are cement rendered.
Stables and a coach house to the east (NPRN 300515) have been demolished.

Sources: RCAHMW Caernarvonshire Inventory II (1960), 9-10 No. 682
CADW Listed Buildings Database (3951)

John Wiles 31.05.07


1. Wallpaintings; Royal Arms, Henry VIII: painted plaster (floral patterns) in spandrel of east partition truss of west half of central block.
2. WALLPAINTING
Foliage pattern: Royal Arms, Henry VIII
Source: RCAHMW Wallpaintings database. 2004.09.08/RCAHMW/SLE

Additional: Tree-ring dating reported in Vernacular Architecture, vol. 41.
BANGOR, Former Bishop's Palace (now Town Hall) (SH 5801 7215), south-west wing Felling dates: Spring 1544 and Winter 1545/6
The Bishop's Palce is a multi-period U-plan range with the central block and south wing at its core. This was completed by Bishop Skevington (1509-33) according to a lost inscription on the porch. The cusped roofs of the hall and cross-wing were apparently removed in the mid-20th century. The added SW wing survives although somewhat altered and appears to have been a box-framed accommodation range of four bays with arch-braced collar-beam trusses. Tree-ring dating now shows that this range can be attributed to Bp. Bulkeley (1541-53), who also repaired the cathedral. It is interesting that this work was commissioned in the early years of the Reformation. See RCAHMW, Caernarvonshire Inventory II (1960), pp. 9-11. Dating commissioned by Terry Williams on behalf of Bangor Civic Society in association with RCAHMW. R.F. Suggett/RCAHMW/2013