1885 - Old College Fire, King Street, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales - Famous Fires on Waymarking.com

In a period of building expansion with the coming of the railway line during the 1860s, it had originally been built as a hotel, but the company went bust before completion and offered it to the recently established university committee.
It was a bargain; about £80,000 had already been spent on the building works, and the university got it (though incomplete) for £10,000. But it was still a struggle to get the university up and running. Much of the early funding came from public subscriptions within Wales (it’s clear that getting any aid at all from governments was an extremely difficult task until the mid-1880s), and many of those were very small sums, the “pennies from the people of Wales” as authors (rather sentimentally) put it.
But perhaps that had advantages; as a result, they regarded it as their college and were prepared to fight for its survival at the most desperate time after the fire of 1885, and when official policy (and money) would have ignored Aberystwyth in favour of colleges at Cardiff and Bangor. The building was rebuilt, part of it wasn't as it was considered to costly, and the portion of the south west wing was left baron, and this year houses a crazy golf course.
After the fire of 1885, much of the buildings north side had been gutted. Whilst development work was carried out on the north side of the building, including the repair of the fire damaged exterior, it was predominantly the interior of the Aberystwyth Old College north wing that was refurbished. This included the main meeting place within the university, with its ornate and very intricate roof which was designed and built by Charles Ferguson.
By this point, the designer Seddon had been relieved of his duties after his plans were deemed to be much more expensive than he had originally stated. The universities board of directors saw Seddon and his plans as a risk which could use up the remaining Aberystwyth University funds.
The cause of the fire has never been ascertained.
With thanks to Aberystwyth Univeristy for the image and some of the history of the great fire.

Type of Structure: other Other: University College Construction Date: 01/01/1860 Fire Date: 01/01/1885 Structure status: Still standing building Cause of Fire: It is unknown to this day what caused the fire. Documentation of the fire: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/04/2012 veritas vita visited it