Observations About Wales:

From Travel To Business & Politics

first published in   July 1999

Portmeirion's Prisoner Shop Reopens 

It was a morning that is rare in mountainous North Wales, a day of sunshine and fleeting shadows, when Portmeirion’s Prisoner Shop, which closed under mysterious circumstances on January 6th,  reopened. No more than the turn of a key at half past nine on Wednesday, May 12th marked the occasion.

Portmeirion is one of Gwynedd’s major employers and one of the greatest of the area’s tourist attractions. The original Prisoner Shop (also known as The Prisoner Information Centre), in business for 16 years, was always a vital meeting place for the multi-national fans of The Prisoner, the television series that was partly filmed in Portmeirion. It was also remembered by the casual visitor to Portmeirion, who would recall the shop’s Hobbit hut coziness and the peculiar items for sale therein. In other words, it was a fixture and a draw, misunderstood by a few, but beloved by many.

Previous to its closing on January 6th, the original Prisoner Shop was run by Reading, England-born Max Hora. Max was often near invisible as he presided over his shop from behind his owlish specs, his tea cup and his display table, which was covered with Prisoner objects such as pens with the inscription “I am not a number, I am a person”, one of the slogans from the show. Other items were transfers for the bottoms of glass mugs. These were printed with a message meant to be seen by the drinker as he finishes his libation: “You have just been poisoned” (The message was first seen on the bottom of a beer mug in the Prisoner episode “The Girl Who Was Death”). Still other items on the table were the books about The Prisoner that Max had written, badges, postcards, key rings, calendars and pyramid-shaped candles with sayings from The Prisoner and images on the sides. Posters, placards and stills from the series covered the walls. In years past he had also in stock capes and umbrellas in the style seen in the show. 

Often there would be a cat in the shop resting in Max’s bright orange colored egg chair. Often a photographer would come in and ask to shoot from the shop’s tiny balcony onto the village. The wish, with much pushing around of boxes, would always be granted.

The Prisoner Shop is housed in the building known as The Round House, the house in which the Prisoner himself (known as Number 6) lived in the series. Its exterior is orangish brown with white trim. It is topped by a slate roof that is naturally, but very pleasingly, enhanced with moss and tiny bits of plant life. Since its January closing, the shop’s interior has been newly remodeled with a rounded ceiling and a handsome blue-gray slate floor, which was reclaimed from an old church. There remains just a dusting of the ecclesiastical in the floor’s central longish diamond-shaped slates; while the necessarily jig-sawed borders give it a bit of a pop feeling. In a nutshell, the shop’s foundation is harmonious with the sensibilities of The Prisoner. Using reclaimed slate is the way to go when decorating with slate, since a newly cut floor would be much more expensive owing to the skilled labor involved in splitting slate. Yes it is ironic that depressed North Wales, so rich in the world’s best slate, can no longer profit from its chief natural resource.

The new design has changed the shop’s former entrance, which opened onto a quiet, shady plaza from where central Portmeirion can be viewed. New double French doors (a feature of the building’s original design as a cabinet maker's shop) instead have been placed where the display bay window used to be. The new doors are usually flung open (weather permitting) welcoming visitors as they enter Portmeirion Village underneath Bridge House. A pair of computer stations are set up in the shop so residents (guests overnighting in Portmeirion) can surf the net.

As of this writing (May 1999), there is little authentic Prisoner merchandise available in the shop, or anywhere. This is because licensing agreements with Carlton Communications, the new owner of the old The Prisoner series, have yet to be sorted out. In the meantime, Portmeirion management has done a yeoman’s job of filling the shop with sixties-style psychedelic toys and do-dads.  Interestingly, the souvenir clotted cream fudge and fruit drop candy (see below) hark back to the old series in which packaged food items available at Number 6’s local grocer were all imprinted with a pennyfarthing symbol. Finally, in case anyone was wondering, access to the tiny balcony is still permitted.