Laura Place forms two sides of a square, fronting the Church of St Michael and All Angels in the shadow of Aberystwyth Castle.

It was developed in the early 19th century by William Edward Powell of Nanteos, High Sheriff and Lord Lieutenant of Cardiganshire.

William Edward Powell was a landowner and Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiganshire from 1816 until shortly before his death in 1854.

Powell engaged George Stanley Repton to design the Assembly Rooms, intended as a gathering place for the fashionable visitors to Regency Aberystwyth.

[7] The Assembly Rooms subsequently served as the first, temporary, home of the National Library of Wales, and now is part of the Music Department of Aberystwyth University.

[11] Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach and Robert Scourfield, in their Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion volume in the Pevsner Buildings of Wales series, describe Laura Place as comprising "the finest Georgian houses of the town.