History
Built in 1872 by wealthy industrialist John Platt, The Towers has a fabulous and long history. Originally a harbourmasters villa, below you can read the history of this outstanding Grade II listed building.
The History of The Towers, Llanfairfechan
The house has a fabulous history. It was built in 1872 for one of the country’s wealthiest industrialists, John Platt. The house was built as a harbourmasters villa for a harbour that was to be built on the other side of the river that runs down the side of the house.
John Platt was a multi-billionaire in today’s terms. He was one of the largest shareholders in the Manchester ship canal. He died at the age of 54 in Paris at the hotel Le Meurice, having contracted Typhoid. At the time he was MP for Oldham, a radical member of the Liberal party and at the helm of the largest textile manufacturing machinery company in the world. He died leaving 7 children, the eldest Henry was in the army and unsuited to business, the next son was Samuel, he was devoted to the business and had been prepared well for taking it over, he was a professional mechanical engineer having travelled and studied around the world.
However, he did not inherit The Towers and was not able to complete the harbour for his beloved ocean-going yacht SS Norseman, the house was left to the eldest daughter Mary. The rest of the children were Lucy, Frederick, Joseph, Alice, John, James, Emily, Florence, Sydney and Amy.
Many think of the Tower and its lantern window as a lighthouse, but it was no such thing. It was common at the time of building, for harbourmasters to have towers from which they could look down onto the decks of boats coming to harbour. By seeing their loads the harbourmaster could calculate the duty or customs payment. This led to this sort of tower being known as a “customs tower”.
Leaping forward the house was bought in the late 1990s by a family called Williams. It is them who are responsible for the murals on the ceiling in the drawing room and the Lady Shallott room. Their daughter, who went on to become a student of fine art is credited with having painted many of the murals including the copy of William Holman Hunt’s version of Lady Shallott (the lady of the lake). Mrs Williams had aspirations and wanted to make the house more of a manorial home than the seafront villa that Platt had originally envisaged. The decoration in the drawing room is intended to make it feel like the inside of a castle.
The house is grade II listed, but was listed quite late at the insistence of CADW, the Welsh historic buildings agency, the sister to English Heritage. The only internal feature listed is the fireplace in the drawing room.
THE TOWERS
Caradoc Place,
Llanfairfechan
LL33 0DA
T.07967 564562