Shire Hall, Llangefni

Following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1888, which established county councils in every county, it became necessary to find a meeting place for Anglesey County Council.^[2] Meetings of the county council were initially held in the county courthouse, a single-storey neoclassical style building on the west side of Glanhwfa Road dating back to the 1860s.^[3] After finding this arrangement inadequate, the county leaders decided to procure a purpose-built shire hall: the site they selected was open land on the opposite side of Glanhwfa Road.^[4][5]

The new building was designed by Lloyd Williams of Denbigh in the Jacobethan style, built by O. M. Roberts & Sons of Porthmadog in rubble masonry at a cost of £4,453 and was completed in 1899.^[1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five gabled bays facing onto the Glanhwfa Road with the end bays slightly projected forward; the central bay, which also slightly projected forward, featured a round headed doorway with a fanlight flanked by pilasters supporting a segmental moulded surround with a keystone; there was a Venetian window on the first floor and the gable above contained a roundel with the county coat of arms.^[1] The recessed bays, on either side of the centre bay, contained sash windows on the ground floor and narrow round headed windows on the first floor.^[1] The outer bays were fenestrated by three sash windows on the ground floor and Venetian style sash windows on the first floor.^[1] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber.^[6]

The building was extended to the south by a link passage and two extra bays to a design by the county architect, Joseph Owen, in 1912.^[1] The shire hall continued to serve as the headquarters of Anglesey County Council until local government reorganisation in 1974 when the shire hall was re-designated the "Borough Council Offices" and became the headquarters of the new Ynys Mon Borough Council.^[7][8] At county level Anglesey was incorporated into Gwynedd in 1974 and the county council headquarters moved to Caernarfon.^[9] Brand new council offices were built at Llangefni in the 1990s for the new unitary authority, Isle of Anglesey County Council, formed in 1996.^[9] However, the shire hall continued to serve as the local registry office as well as the meeting place of Llangefni Town Council.^[10]

Isle of Anglesey County Council marketed the shire hall for sale in June 2018.^[11] The registry office moved to the Anglesey Business Centre in September 2019,^[12] and a developer, Chief Properties, acquired the property later that year.^[13] A fire, very likely started deliberately, started in the building in December 2023.^[14]