RetroWeb Classic Television: The Prisoner

Portmeirion ("The Village") Gallery

The Portmeirion Gallery, while still available below in its original form, has been superseded by this Flickr Photo Set, created in January 2010:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/retroweb/sets/72157623276677846/

Click on any image to view a larger version

Architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis fulfilled a lifelong dream when he created Portmeirion, a unique and quaint combination of buildings, statues, gardens and curiosities on a rocky peninsula on the coast of North Wales' Cardigan Bay. Opened in the 1920's, Portmeirion was later dubbed by its creator as a "home for fallen buildings," and indeed, many of its buildings were disassembled at sites hundreds of miles away, and shipped piece-by-piece to Portmeirion for reassembly.

Patrick McGoohan had visited Portmeirion many years prior to his creation of The Prisoner, and in fact, had filmed location scenes for at least one episode of Secret Agent at the resort ("View from the Villa"). In transforming Portmeirion to "The Village", McGoohan achieved one of the most original and fascinating utilizations ever of a natural location for a filmed work of fiction.

A mansion originally located on the peninsula serves as Portmeirion's main hotel, and includes a restaurant, a bar and several public rooms. In The Prisoner, the main hotel mansion was used as the "Old People's Home." Immediately in front of the hotel and afixed to the lawn wall and rocky shore is an old ship, known in The Prisoner as "The Stone Boat."

The main hotel suffered a devastating fire in 1981 (only a few months after the photographs on this page were taken), which destroyed most of its irreplaceable interior. By the late 1980's, the building had been restored to its original appearance and as much as possible internally, and it was re-opened for guests.

Just beyond the main hotel is the "Camera Obscura," a small structure which features a lens, a mirror and a projection table in a dark room, all which can be used to view objects toward which the lens is rotated, including the hillside village.

Tide in the estuary rises and falls with significant differentials. In The Prisoner, scenes were filmed at both low tide (e.g. "Dance of the Dead") and at high (e.g. "Many Happy Returns").

Main Hotel and
Camera Obscura (left)
Main Hotel front lawn

Main Hotel from Bell Tower
The "Stone Boat"

Fans of The Prisoner will instantly recognize the Portmeirion structure below as the residence of Number 6. Although the series depicted the interior as spacious, it is in reality quite small. Today, this shop in Battery Square is named "Number Six" and is home to "The Prisoner Shop," which sells videos and mementos associated with the television series.

"Home from home" for Number Six in The Prisoner
View of Number Six
from bell tower

The view from Number Six
The Pantheon, otherwise known as "The Green Dome," residence to The Prisoner's Number 2.

Hercules Hall ("Town Hall"
in The Prisoner) and statue
of Hercules
location for chess game
in The Prisoner's "Checkmate"

view of the Gloriette from the "chess lawn"
view from Battery Square

view from the Gloriette of reflecting pool and the Gothic Pavilion
The Colonnade

The Pantheon and
Battery Square
view from Battery Square
toward Telford's Tower

view from Pantheon
toward Hercules Hall
nearby Castle Deudraeth
(served as "The Hospital"
in The Prisoner)

nighttime view of Dome and Number Six
The Salutation Restaurant

sign on Main Hotel lawn

This page is part of the RetroWeb The Prisoner web site.