Pontypridd Station

Egyptian revival

Described by Cadw as being built in the free Egyptian revival style of architecture, from 1907. Here the recently renovated station canopy with its cast iron supports provides a wonderful contrast to the patterned red brick and terracotta decoration of the building itself.

Terracotta and brick detailing
 

http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/34863/details/PONTYPRIDD+RAILWAY+STATION,+TAFF+VALE+RAILWAY,+HIGH+STREET,+PONTYPRIDD/

Signs of the times

Old street sign

Looking around Aberdare its actually quite hard to find older styles of lettering. Apart from words actually carved into buildings or tomb stones, street signs are one of the few remnants of what would have been at one time ubiquitous.

These appear to be cast signs and are still quite common apart from, ironically,  the conservation area of the town where they must have been removed some 20 years ago. The typography here is of varied line width and characterised by serifs with brackets. The gaps betwen the letters are not entirely regular.

Pressed steel sign

 

This sign still has something of the shape of the older ones with its indented corners and raised border. The letters are however all sans serif without any variation in line width or spacing.

Modern sign
 

This modern sign, I'm not sure what its made of, is free standing but has an interesting typeface with very fine angled serifs and subtle variation in line thickness.

Bench decoration in Commercial Street
 

The most modern lettering in the town (in that they were only put up a week ago) belongs to these benches which are each decorated with 2 letters, together spelling out the phrase, ABERDARE QUEEN    THE VALLEYS. (The bench with the OF is missing at present) The letters are all upper case and decorated top and bottom with wavy lines. They have bracketted serifs and appear very similar to Times New Roman, which you can probably find a version of on your computer.

A bit like this    E

Architectural Terracotta

YMCA Building, Merthyr

South Wales has a number of terracotta buildings, including the derelict YMCA building in Merthyr. This was voted by the Victorian Society as being in the top 10 of threatened old buildings in the UK in 2011. Meanwhile the nearby Town Hall, another terracotta gem, is being lovingly restored to create a new centre for arts and culture.

Terracotta was widely used by the Victorians and Edwardians to decorate buildings, perhaps the most recognisable building in Wales being the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay. Terracotta is made from high quality ground clay and sand which is cast in moulds and then heated at very high temperatures. William Morris apparently recognised architectural terracotta as a craft process, hence the term 'hand made buildings'.

Information about architectural terracotta can be found at http://ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/52/UNDERSTANDING_dir/UNDERSTANDING_s.htm

More about this building in particular is at http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/ymcabuilding.htm