Royal Victoria Pavilion

Royal Victoria Pavilion

A seaside pavilion of 1903, designed by Stanley Davenport Adshead. The building was originally built to incorporate a theatre and café, and has since been converted to a casino and then to a public house in 2018.

The stucco-covered building is constructed of brick and concrete over a steel frame, with a metal roof. The plan comprises a main central section, formerly the theatre, which is two storeys high. The ground-floor street entrance is on the north elevation, with additional entrances onto a covered terrace on the south (seaward) side. At the west end is a single-storey sub-pavilion whose roof forms an open viewing deck at first-floor level, leading to a promenade that runs around the building. At the east end is another sub-pavilion with its own northern entrance. Internally, the central section contains a wrap-around mezzanine accessed by an imperial stair on the south side.

The exterior displays French Classical-revival character with wide, low elevations beneath a prominent curved mansard roof. The long north and south elevations are flanked by flat-roofed polygonal sub-pavilions at each end.

The north-facing elevation features a horizontally-banded ground floor with an arcade of Ionic columns. The central curved entrance is a 21st-century addition projecting under a bow-fronted flat roof. The first floor has a continuous cast-iron decorative balustrade in front of multi-paned French windows, above which the central roof recesses behind a continuous canopy and curves to a top cornice. A large 21st-century free-standing sign reading 'THE ROYAL VICTORIA PAVILION' is affixed to the roof.

The eastern sub-pavilion retains the former main entrance, located under a metal-clad dome supported by 21st-century columns. Either side of the dome stand life-sized sculptures of reclining figures—a male to the east and a female to the west. The walls below feature classical detailing including paterae, swags and Doric columns.

The centre of the southern (seaward) elevation displays a covered arcade on iron columns with Composite capitals. The terrace and first floor above are fronted by regular multi-paned French windows. The central roof rises above and carries a 21st-century free-standing sign reading 'THE ROYAL VICTORIA PAVILION'. At the eastern end at ground-floor level, the sub-pavilion has Doric pilasters delineated by round-headed rusticated window openings, filled in but retaining keystones decorated with Grecian-type faces. The western sub-pavilion is similar, but its windows are retained and the keystones are carved with lion heads. The roof above the viewing deck at the western end also carries a 21st-century free-standing sign reading 'WETHERSPOONS'.

The principal interior space is the large main bar, occupying the former theatre, which extends the full length and depth of the central pavilion at ground-floor level. A 21st-century imperial stair on the south side, with a timber wreath-type handrail and metal balusters, rises to a mezzanine floor running around the periphery of the main pavilion and fronted by a 21st-century metal balustrade. All bar fixtures, fittings and floor tiles are 21st-century additions, constructed from or consisting of dark stained timber and modern materials respectively.

The west-end sub-pavilion is fitted out as a seating area, centred on a ring of Doric columns that originally supported a dome, now replaced with a flat roof. The east-end sub-pavilion functions as retail space. The cellars are shallow and concrete-lined.