Anchor & Fountain

Anchor (1936, listed Grade II 1971) was designed in 1930. The Fountain (1936, listed Grade II) was designed sometime later. Clough's preliminary design for Anchor is unusual in showing the dramatic setting of the new building. This block was to stand against a cliff beside a lawn and cascade, at the lowest level in the village. Access is by a bridge leading off the drive which passes it at eaves level. The constructional methods and details were kept as elementary as possible, since each new building had to be started when the hotel closed in the autumn and be completed by the following Easter. Anchor comprised six small bedrooms which in 1990 were converted into three spacious suites. Fountain contains two suites. The mural of Neptune on Anchor is by Hans Feibusch.

It was at Fountain that Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit. His companion, Joyce Carey, wrote about the visit: "Noël arrived back from the U.S.A. in the spring of 1941. 'I've got to write a comedy,' he said, 'people must laugh. I have got an idea and I must get on with it as soon as possible.' The noisy nights of the Blitz prevented him from writing, "and so we took a train to Port Meirion in Wales where we would be able to sleep undisturbed by bombs. It was the perfect place, a small 'mother' hotel and houses built in varying sizes and designs within reach of it. We had a house consisting of two suites one above the other almost on the beach and about fifty yards from the main hotel, and it was there in five days that Blithe Spirit was born... The first day to my utter amazement Noël had written at least two thirds of the first act, page after page of neatly typed script, an incredible feat. He said: 'It's always better with me if it pops out like this'" There was as little delay as possible in casting, rehearsing, and producing Blithe Spirit. It opened at the Piccadilly Theatre where it soon started to fulfil the author's wish to make people laugh.