The Royal Victoria Arcade

The Royal Victoria Arcade

A purpose-built shopping arcade constructed in 1835-6, designed by architect William Westmacott (1792/3-1880) in Italianate style. The principal entrance on the south-east side was modified in 1856, and the building underwent restoration in the 1970s and again in 2011.

The structure is stuccoed with a hipped slate roof and is roughly cruciform in plan, aligned south-east to north-west, comprising two storeys with basement. It contains 14 shops, originally with living accommodation above, arranged on either side of a central passage running from south-east to north-west. Four quadrants surround a rotunda positioned towards the north side, with shorter passages extending on the south-west and north-east sides. A larger exhibition space to the north-east has latterly been subdivided for use by a number of small shops. The extensive basement housed a market, later used as the Ryde Heritage Centre, and contains an internal ice well beneath it.

The principal south-east front facing Union Street features a wide central entrance bay flanked by slightly projecting wings. The entrance bay is decorated with a dentil cornice and parapet, surmounted by the Royal Arms of Princess Victoria supported by a rather Baroque Lion and Unicorn, and capped by a flagstaff. The building name 'ROYAL VICTORIA ARCADE' is inscribed below in original serif letters. The shaped architrave with keystone over the entrance, filled with a fascia panel, dates from 1856. Flanking the central entrance are slightly projecting two-storey pavilions with basement, topped by low pitched pyramidal slate roofs with bracketed eaves rising to a finial. Friezes with moulded strings run below these roofs. The first floors each contain a recessed sash window with glazing bars intact, surrounded by a raised-edge frame with a pediment on consoles above, and a small stuccoed balcony with diamond-patterned balustrade supported on shaped brackets below the string. Tripartite shop windows divided by pilasters occupy the ground floor. Low screen walls topped by finials and pierced by doors connect the arcade with adjoining buildings.

Internally, three steps lead up from the principal south-east front to the arcade interior, which is set back from the front and linked to it on either side by concave bays. Each concave bay has double glazed doors of two fielded panels flanked by quarter Doric pilasters on the ground floor. The first floors contain tripartite sash windows with glazing bars intact, with Doric pilasters dividing the lights and a moulded string across the bay linking the capitals. The frieze and cornice above break forward slightly over the window as an entablature. The balcony, supported on capped consoles with flanking stucco piers and coping, features a balustrade of crossed iron bars with lead rosettes. The eastern arm of the arcade leads to a rotunda, with the main axis continued westward for one bay. Similar extensions project north and south, the latter ending with a window rather than a door. The entire passage is articulated by giant Doric pilasters on pedestals, with the frieze and cornice breaking forward over them. This line continues through squat pilasters dividing the clerestory and supporting the cross beams of the ceiling, which are decorated with pattern and rosettes to the centre of each recessed panel.

The rotunda features a radially compartmented saucer dome with an oculus containing leaded painted glass depicting the Royal Coat of Arms at its centre. Paintings on the dome panels were added in the early 21st century. The arcade clerestory has four lights with marginal glazing in each bay. The bays are treated similarly to the concave entrance ones, with broad balconied tripartite first-floor windows and ground-floor shop fronts. The two middle shops have tripartite fronts with Doric pilasters, panelled risers, a small canted bay to the centre, and a door to the right with marginal glazing and bottom panels. Similar glazing appears on the square fanlight and upper light of the side window. The outer shops also have tripartite fronts but lack a bay window. Narrower terminal bays at either end of the arcade each have a window treated as a door serving the shops adjoining Union Street and those on the east side of the rotunda. The rotunda segments have large four-pane ground-floor windows flanked by quarter pilasters, while the first-floor balconies recede between pilasters of the tripartite windows. The north and south arms contain similar tripartite shop fronts to the outer ones on the main axis. The west arm has a tripartite window on each side of the ground floor with panelled risers to the side lights. The west door is double with two moulded panels at the base and tall lights, with identical side lights. Above is a large semi-circular fanlight with marginal leading and painted glass in an architrave with large keystone springing from the moulded string. The door in the end wall of the north arm is similar but narrower, without side lights and with a blind fanlight. The south arm has a tripartite window with glazing bars and Doric pilasters, topped by a semi-circular leaded fanlight in a similar surround to the doors. The stone floor of the passages features a series of cast iron ventilation grilles, overlaid by tiles in the early 21st century.

The basement contains an underground market, later used as the Ryde Heritage Centre. Beneath this lies a circular ice well of circa 1835, constructed of brick, approximately 18 feet in height and 11 feet in diameter, with a domed roof and curved base incorporating a central drain. The ice well remains intact except for the wooden entrance door.