A distinctive 1930s house in streamline moderne style located on the seafront with flat roof and white rendered elevations. The house has been attributed to the Welsh architect, Sidney Colwyn Foulkes (1884–1971) by the UK Modern House Index, although this is unlikely. Developers Commercial Development Management announced proposals in October 2021 for the property to be demolished and replaced with five apartments and a car parking space, with members of Conwy County Borough Council later voting in favour of the demolition.

Source:

http://ukmoho.co.uk/html/building/12128.html

57 Marine Drive is a two-story house on the corner of Marine Drive and College Road, and faces out onto the Rhos-on-Sea promenade and across the sea.

It is built in the streamline Moderne style, of brick covered with a smooth render painted white and with a flat roof with low parapets. The corner location is emphasised by the narrow, three storey, entrance bay from which the rest of the house angles back.  The house is set into the rear corner of the plot, with garden to the north and east bounded by stone walls, into which are incorporated stone gate piers of a Classical style somewhat at odds with the house.

The boundary wall and gates appear to date to c.1916 when a conveyance documents the sale by William Horton of Colwyn Bay to Albert Marlow of Northaampton, and plot of land with a stone boundary wall and with permission for buildings in the future at a cost of £1,100. The plot was again sold in 1922 by Marlow’s widow, Katie Marlow, to Harry Brown of Rhos-on-sea for £1,844.8.10. A reduced plot was then sold by Harry Brown to Robert Walton Brown in 1934, who then sold it on to William Evans the following year. Evans was a local builder from Old Colwyn.

In 1937 a conveyance is recorded between Evans and Mrs Royle of Cheshire for a ‘detached messuage or dwelling house and outbuildings erected thereon or on some part thereof and called or intended to be called Elyor House’. This indicates William Evans built the house in the intervening years. It is suggested that the name Elyor House indicates the property was built specifically for Mrs Royle, whose late husband George Eric Royle (d.1929) had a family business based at Elyor, Cadishead.

The property was sold in 1962, marketed as an ‘unusually attractive, speciously planned, freehold detached marine residence of ultra modern design’. The house was described as having a lounge, dining room, study or sitting room, 4/5 bedrooms, fine Vitrolite bathroom, and excellent domestic offices (North Wales Weekly, Thursday 6th December 1962). The following year planning permission was given to split the property into two flats.

By 2021 the property was still as two flats, with various modernisations having taken place. This included replacement fireplaces and the fitting of UPVC windows. However a number of original features, including the staircases and bannisters, tiles, and bath remained. Planning permission for demolition and construction of a replacement house was sought in 2021, sparking a campaign for protection and listing. This was supported by the Twentieth Century Society, a number of public figures including Griff Rhys-Jones and Joan Bakewell, and the Senedd MS Darren Millar. After assessing the house, Cadw determined the house did not meet the criteria for listing and permission for demolition was granted in January 2022. Demolition of the house has since taken place.  

S Fielding October 2022

Ref: Heritage Impact Assessment, Cadnant Planning Nov 2021