Gate House
Gate House (1954-55, listed Grade II 1971) was Clough's first
building at Portmeirion following
the lifting of building restrictions after the
war (in force until 1954). It straddles the driveway a short
distance beyond the old tollgate. Rather than clear a level site
for the building Clough made use of the existing terrain, making a
feature of the rugged rock formations upon which the Gate House has
been constructed. The deep arch, which is floodlit at night,
contains a ceiling mural by Hans Feibusch who painted several at
Portmeirion. The random pattern of fenestration, one chimney and
many swags give Gate House a very Baroque character. The illusion
of shutters to the upper floor windows is created by lines cut in
the render and painted green.
Clough wanted visitors to enter the village having passed along a tree lined drive and then under a series of arches, finally emerging on Battery Square where the sense of space and colour would be all the more intense for the semi enclosed route that one was obliged to take.
Gate House is a self-catering cottage sleeping four people and comprising a sitting room, kitchen and dining room on the ground floor and a twin bedroom, two single bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor. During the 1960s it was often taken for the Summer season by Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles. The wardrobe in the main bedroom was actually built at his request and to his own specification.
Hans Nathan Feibusch, painter and muralist: born Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany 15 August 1898; married 1935 Sidonie Gestetner (died 1963); died London 18 July 1998. He contributed several Baroque murals at Portmeirion. Of his superbly painted ceiling under the Gate House Clough wrote, "...his profane achievements at Portmeirion are as lively, his pagan deities as vigorous and convincing as well could be." Feibusch also contributed drawings which Clough would have cut out into sheet iron and painted when short of a statue. The cutouts "...simply waited in the queue for an appropriate statue."