Summit Buildings
The first building on the summit of Snowdon was erected in 1838 to sell refreshments, and a licence to sell intoxicating liquor was granted in 1845. When the Snowdon Mountain Railway was opened in 1896, a hotel was built at the terminus, near the summit. This was replaced in the 1930s by a restaurant designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, which later served as a café and gift shop. Having become increasingly dilapidated, this building was described by Prince Charles as "the highest slum in Wales". Its state led to a campaign to replace the building. In April 2006, Snowdonia National Park Authority with the support of the Snowdonia Society agreed a deal to start work on a new café and visitor centre complex. By mid-October 2006 the old building had been largely demolished.
The new RIBA Award-winning £8.4 million visitor centre, Hafod Eryri, designed by Ray Hole Architects in conjunction with Arup and built by Carillion, was officially opened on 12 June 2009 by First Minister Rhodri Morgan. The Welsh National Poet, Gwyn Thomas, composed a new couplet for the new building, displayed at its entrance and on the windows, which reads "Copa'r Wyddfa: yr ydych chwi, yma, Yn nes at y nefoedd / The summit of Snowdon: Here you are nearer To Heaven"). The name Hafod Eryri was chosen from several hundred put forward after a competition was held by the BBC. Hafod is Welsh for an upland residence, while Eryri is the Welsh name for Snowdonia.
Read more about this topic: Snowdon
Famous quotes containing the words summit and/or buildings:
“The light that shined upon the summit now seems almost to shine at our feet.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“The American who has been confined, in his own country, to the sight of buildings designed after foreign models, is surprised on entering York Minster or St. Peter’s at Rome, by the feeling that these structures are imitations also,—faint copies of an invisible archetype.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)