The Llandudno Town Library in
Mostyn Street was built on the site of an earlier single story public
library designed by Mr George Felton, architect to the Mostyn Estates
and opened in 1873 by Lady Augusta Mostyn. The present much
larger building was opened in 1910 by Lord Mostyn to the design of a
later Mostyn Estate architect, Mr George Humphrey and hade been built
and furnished with the significant aid of a £4,000 grant from the
philantropist Mr Andrew Carnegie. Further extensions to the library
were completed in 1939 and 1994.
The Library stages a permanent exhibition illustrating
the development of the town and is therefore a good place from
which to
start this leisurely walk about town. The Library has a good local
history study centre and excellent computer access facilities as well
as a fine collection of books. The Llandudno Tourist Information Centre
is located in the Library.
The Library is surrounded by the Victoria
Centre, which is a
fine modern
shopping Mall that also has at the rear a large and inexpensive
multi-storey car
park. Much of Mostyn Street is devoted to elegant
architecture and fine shops of all
descriptions. Great
features of all Llandudno shopping streets are the
very wide pavements and the many covered verandas, which make shopping
in Llandudno a totally pleasurable experience.
Almost opposite the Library and flanked by shops is St.
John's English
Methodist Church(Marks
& Spencer have their ladies' shop on one side of the church and
their men's shop on the other). The church has a fine Victorian
gothic tower with an elegant stone spire. Regular concerts mostly by
leading Welsh male voice choirs are
held in the church on Tuesday and Thursday evenings throughout the
season.
Llandudno benefits from extraordinary foresight on the part of Lord
Mostyn's Architects and planners who deliberately laid out the width of
all the major streets to very generous proportions (despite criticism
at the time) such that parking on
both sides is generally permitted without restricting the passage of
vehicles in
both directions. In this section are the main central
Llandudno bus stops and there are frequent services to Conwy and Colwyn
Bay as well as to Rhyl, Bangor, Caernarfon and Holyhead. It
is just a very short walk from the Library
along Mostyn
Street flanked by its imposing shops that lead round the corner and
into Clonmel Street
and through to the Promenade.
Clonmel Street is also opposite one side of Trinity Square
and is thus
the end of the first very short stage of the Town Trail.