Portmeirion

The other night I had dinner at a friend's Dad's house and his china is all from that traditional British pottery, Portmeirion and we got chatting about the village Portmeirion itself and what fun it is.

The village was built over a period of 50 years starting in 1925 and was the dream of architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis.

It's a real fantasty world with a higgedly-piggedly mix of different architecture incorporating fragments of demolished buildings all mixed together in a rather surprising way. The quirkiness of it is just great and in addition there are a wealth of exotic plants, avenues of rhodendrons and a stunning position on the Welsh coast.

Apparently Williams-Ellis started dreaming of this project when he was just five years old!

Portmeirion was famously the backdrop for the cult 1960s tv series The Prisoner, but was also where Noel Coward wrote Blithe Spirit and boasts guests ranging from filmstars Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck to legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright who can be seen below going over plans with William-Ellis himself.

If you haven't been already I would definitely recommend it - so inspiring!