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

The Perimeter Wall, Gates and Lodges along Grosvenor Road, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast

This is the red brick perimeter wall, four gateways, and two gate lodges fronting onto Grosvenor Road at the Royal Victoria Hospital. The wall and lodges date from 1901 to 1903 and were designed by William Henman of Henman & Cooper, the practice previously responsible for Birmingham General Hospital. The construction was carried out by McLaughlin & Harvey. Although the composition has been altered from its original state, the changes reflect the development and expansion of the hospital across different periods. The structures make a significant contribution to the setting of the wider hospital complex and have group value with the other listed buildings and structures on the site.

Historical Background

Belfast grew at a remarkable pace during the 19th century. Its population stood at around 20,000 in 1800, rose to 70,000 by 1841, exceeded 120,000 by 1871, and reached 385,000 by 1911, making it by far the largest urban population in Ireland. This rapid growth placed increasing pressure on existing medical facilities, particularly the Belfast Royal Hospital on Frederick Street. By the end of the 1800s it was clear that a new hospital was needed. The chosen site was at the junction of Grosvenor and Falls Roads. McLaughlin & Harvey won the building contract in September 1900, the foundation stone was laid early in 1901, and the hospital was officially opened on 27 July 1903 by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra during their visit to Ireland.

An early ground floor plan by Henman and Cooper shows a porter's lodge at the principal entrance on Grosvenor Road, a coal entrance to its left, and a further entrance to the right giving access to the proposed isolation buildings and other facilities. A photograph taken around 1905 shows the original boundary wall as only approximately eight to ten brick courses high, topped by metal railings between brick piers. The porter's lodge at that time comprised rooms on either side of a round-headed covered entrance way, the arch supported on columns — a concept comparable in principle, though different in design, to the gate lodge at Friar's Bush Cemetery. The lodge was positioned directly in line with the main entrance to the hospital building, above the doorway of which stood a statue of Queen Victoria.

The lodge first appears on the 1923 Ordnance Survey map, which also suggests that the area immediately behind the boundary wall was planted with trees, and shows a further entrance off Grosvenor Road opposite the King Edward Building, completed in 1915. By the time of the 1937 Ordnance Survey map the original archway appears to have been removed. The porter's lodge remained, and a longer rectangular building had by then been added to its west side. Evidence of this building survives in the boundary wall facing Grosvenor Road, where a bricked-up doorway and several bricked-up windows are visible, along with one unblocked doorway fitted with a metal gate.

Historic records indicate that in 1995 there was a proposal to increase the height of the boundary wall by four courses using matching salvaged bricks, replace sandstone coping, widen the entrance gates at the King Edward Building, and fill other gate openings with brick panels to match existing work. In 1999 there were further proposals to restore the existing brick wall and gates and remove modern additions such as recent brickwork. A restoration programme was under way in 2000, and in April of that year it was confirmed in a written answer in the House of Commons that £79,337 would be spent on restoring the listed boundary wall.

Perimeter Wall

The perimeter wall is built in red brick laid in a mixture of stretcher bond and English garden bond, with a chamfered plinth course and topped by a corbelled stone coping. Square-section boundary piers appear at regular intervals, each with stone banding and a corbelled coping stone. The wall steps up from east to west, following the incline of Grosvenor Road. Some sections are more decorative, incorporating mouldings, while others consist of dwarf walls with saddle-back coping stones topped by painted metal railings. The remains of arched openings are visible at various points along the wall, all now infilled with brick. At the western end of Grosvenor Road, a square-section red brick boundary pier topped by a stone coping with ball finials and scrolls connects the historic walling with the modern walling and railings that continue onto Falls Road.

Gateways

Gate 1, possibly dating from around 1910, is located in front of the King Edward VII memorial buildings. It consists of two square-section red brick piers 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 faces of the gate posts have brick buttresses and a cast iron coach bollard.

Gate 2 provides both pedestrian and vehicular access to the west of the west gate lodge. The pedestrian entrance passes through a segmental-headed archway set within the brick wall, with a moulded coping stone, sandstone banding, and moulded stone corbels to either side. The painted metal gate has square-section railings and ball railing heads. Immediately to the west, the double vehicular gate is attached to the west wall of the lodge and to a square-section gate pier with stone banding and a corbelled capping stone. This painted metal gate is identical in design to Gate 1.

The third gateway, originally the principal entrance, dates from 1901 to 1903 and is situated between the two gate lodges in front of the Musgrave Wing, with access beyond leading directly to the front of the original hospital building. Two square-section red brick piers with stone banding and stone capping with ball finials and diagonal scrolls support a wide metal gate screen with square-section railings and decorated top and bottom rails, and fleur-de-lys railing heads. Pedestrian gates to each side are supported on square-section metal posts, with the head post returning to the wall and carrying applied decoration.

The fourth gateway is a modern wide painted metal gate screen located close to the eastern end of the wall on Grosvenor Road. It comprises double gates and a smaller pedestrian gate to the west, with square-section railings, ball railing heads, and standards topped by ball finials. The name of the hospital is incorporated into the gates using applied metal letters.

Gate Lodges

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

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

The west gate lodge consists of a square-plan form lodge abutted on its east side by a slightly taller rectangular-plan form lodge. There is a square-plan red brick pilaster to the south-east corner with stone banding and a panelled and corbelled coping stone. The east elevation has a segmental arch door opening containing a modern flush timber door with a fanlight, and to the north of this a segmental-headed window opening with a modern timber casement window and a concrete cill. The south elevation has two segmental-headed windows with moulded stone cills and timber casement windows to the eastern part. The seven-bay western part of the south elevation has a segmental arch opening to the east end, which leads through to the pedestrian entrance of the fourth gateway, and segmental-headed window openings with stone keystones to the remaining bays. A modern flat-roofed red brick porch is attached to the central bay. The window openings of the two central bays are infilled, with timber casement windows to the remaining bays.

Two modern single-storey flat-roofed red brick buildings stand to the east of the gate lodges, and a modern flat-roofed single-storey gate lodge stands to the west of the fourth gateway; all three are of little architectural interest.

Setting

The perimeter wall, gateways, and gate lodges on Grosvenor Road form part of a wider group of listed structures on the Royal Victoria Hospital site. These include the King Edward VII Buildings, the statue of Queen Victoria, the front of the original hospital, the Mullhouse works, the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, the Microbiology Building, the Musgrave Wing, and the main hospital building.