Off the North Wales main line at Llandudno Junction and up the branch to Llandudno.
As so very often, our first clock sighting is at the railway station.
This is the sort of clock I like. It is situated where it is clear to see, is large enough to seen from a distance, and has a simple face - all of which makes the task of telling the time very easy. It also doesn't take much of a detective to know from the photos that this clock is at Lllandudno station.
The station was first opened in October 158, but the current buidling dates from 1892. The branch to Llandudno was originally built to serve a proposed harbour which would have served the route the Ireland, but the development of Holyhead harbour to the west put paid to this proposal. The railway now serves a nice seaside resort town.
Incidentally, the clock looked even more impressive later in the day when the sun was shining.
The town has many nice shops, some with covered pavements to provide protection from the elements, and it also has the indoor Victoria Centre on Mostyn Street. It has approximately 100,000 suare feet of shopping and claims to be "Llandudno's principal multi-storey shoppers car park (366 spaces)", which is probably true but terribly impressive. However, it is redeemed by having both an internal and external clock.
The town has many nice shops, some with covered pavements to provide protection from the elements, and it also has the indoor Victoria Centre on Mostyn Street. It has approximately 100,000 suare feet of shopping and claims to be "Llandudno's principal multi-storey shoppers car park (366 spaces)", which is probably true but terribly impressive. However, it is redeemed by having both an internal and external clock.
The internal clcok mirrors the one at the station in its simple effectives, although this time with an elegant blue and gold face.
The external clock sits under a broken pediment with a bell.
Also on Mostyn Street is the local branch of the Halifax building society (which reminds me that I need to write up my visit to Halifax - the town - which I made in January).
Just around the corner is the floral clock.
The planting is obviously not so impressive at this time of year (late March), but it is much more impressive when it is in its floral prime.
Floral clocks were once quite common, especially in large parks and seaside resorts. The first example in the UK was installed in West Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh in 1903, with the world's first example in the Trocadero Gardens in Paris in 1892. There is a lot more information, and examples of other UK examples at gardensheritageandplanning.com. And perhaps this could be the inspiration for a subset of this blog if I can get a list of all the UK floral clocks which still exist.
I do love a bit of quirky transport, and the Great Orme Tramway fits that description nicely. The Great Orme is a headland high up to the north of the town, and the tramway (built in 1902) is surely the best way of reaching it. More importantly for this blog, the base station (Victoria) has a clock.
The tramway's website claims that this is the only funicular tramway in Britain that runs on public roads. The trams are open sided, which wasn't very good on the very windy March day that I visited, but it is well worth the ride.
Our final Llandudno clock isn't actually there. I had seen pictures of the Millennium Clock which was situated in the middle of a roundabout on Mostyn Street, but walking up and down several times I couldn't find what should have been an obvious one to spot. A bit of detective work looking at the buildings in the background of photographs led me to find the right location.
And so down the line to Colwyn Bay...
