The Perimeter Wall, Gates and Lodges (along Grosvenor Road), Royal Victoria Hospital, 274 Grosvenor Road, Belfast, BT12 6BA

The Perimeter Wall, Gates and Lodges at Royal Victoria Hospital

This complex of red brick walling, four gateways, and two gate lodges fronts onto Grosvenor Road in Belfast. The principal elements date from 1901-1903 and were designed by William Henman of the architectural practice Henman & Cooper, with construction undertaken by McLaughlin & Harvey.

The Perimeter Wall

The red brick walling is laid in a mixture of stretcher bond and English bond, with a chamfered plinth course and topped by corbelled stone coping. Square section boundary piers are positioned at regular intervals, each featuring stone banding and corbelled coping stones. The wall rises from east to west, stepping to follow the slope of Grosvenor Road. Parts of the walling are more decorative, incorporating mouldings, while other sections consist of dwarf walls with saddle-back coping stones topped by painted metal railings. Various arched openings are visible throughout, all now infilled with brick. A square section red brick boundary pier with stone coping and ball finials with scrolls marks the transition between the historic walling and modern walling and railings at the west end of Grosvenor Road, continuing onto Falls Road.

The Four Gateways

Gate 1 dates possibly from 1910 and is positioned in front of the King Edward VII memorial buildings. It comprises two square section piers in red brick topped by stone coping with ball finials and diagonal scrolls, supporting painted metal gates with square section railings, top and bottom rails, ball railing heads, and standards topped with ball finials. The inside jambs of the gate posts have brick buttresses and a cast iron coach bollard.

Gate 2 serves as both a pedestrian and vehicular entrance, located to the west of the western gate lodge. The pedestrian entrance passes through a segmental headed archway set within a brick wall, with moulded coping stone and sandstone banding flanked by moulded stone corbels. A painted metal gate with square section railings and ball railing heads closes this opening. The adjoining double gate for vehicular traffic is attached to the west wall of the lodge and is supported by a square section gate pier with stone banding and corbelled capping stone. The painted metal gate is identical in design to Gate 1.

The third gateway, dating from 1901-1903, is the original principal entrance and stands between the two gate lodges in front of the Musgrave Wing, providing access to the front of the original hospital building. Two square section piers in red brick with stone banding and stone capping topped by ball finials and diagonal scrolls support a wide metal gate screen. The metalwork features square section railings with decorated top and bottom rails and fleur-de-lys railing heads. Pedestrian gates flank each side, supported on square section metal posts with decorative applied details.

Gate 4 is a modern wide painted metal gate screen positioned near the east end of the walling on Grosvenor Road, comprising double gates and a smaller pedestrian gate with square section railings, ball railing heads, and standards topped by ball finials. The hospital name is incorporated into the gates using metal letters.

The Gate Lodges

Two single storey flat roofed red brick gate lodges, dating from 1901-1903 and designed by William Henman of Henman & Cooper, flank the third gateway in front of the Musgrave Wing.

The eastern gate lodge is square in plan. Its walling is laid in English bond with stone banding. A dentilled stone cornice supports cast iron guttering discharging to circular cast iron downpipes, while a raised red brick parapet is topped with a concrete flat roof. The openings to Grosvenor Road have been filled (possibly in 1995) but retain their relieving arches and moulded stone cills. Two rectangular plan chimney stacks with corbelled coping and red clay chimney pots rise from the east lodge. A segmental arch door opening on the south elevation has been partly infilled with a brick panel and now contains a square-headed modern flush door opening onto a stone step. A square plan pilaster of red brick at the southwest corner features stone banding and panelled and corbelled coping stone. The west elevation contains a narrower segmental arch door opening with a square-headed modern flush timber door with fanlight. To the south of this door, the remains of a segmental headed window opening now forms a smaller square headed opening with a timber casement window and concrete cill.

The western gate lodge consists of a square plan form abutted by a slightly higher rectangular plan form on its east side. A square plan pilaster of red brick at the southeast corner features stone banding and panelled and corbelled coping stone. A segmental arch door opening on the east elevation contains a modern flush timber door with fanlight. To the north of the door is a segmental headed window opening with a modern timber casement window and concrete cill. The south elevation features two segmental headed windows with moulded stone cills and timber casement windows at its east part. The seven-bay west section of the south elevation has a segmental arch opening at its east end leading to the pedestrian entrance of the fourth gateway, with segmental headed window openings featuring stone keystones in the remaining bays. A modern flat-roofed red brick porch stands at the central bay. The window openings to the two central bays are infilled, with timber casement windows in the remaining bays.

Additional structures of little architectural interest include two modern single storey flat roofed red brick buildings to the east of the gate lodges and a modern flat roofed single storey gate lodge to the west of the fourth gateway.

Setting

The perimeter wall, gateways, and gate lodges form part of a larger complex of listed structures at the Royal Victoria Hospital site, including the King Edward VII Buildings, the statue of Queen Victoria, the front of the original hospital, Mullhouse works, the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, the Microbiology building, the Musgrave Wing, and the Hospital Building.