Mulhouse Building, Royal Victoria Hospital Grounds, Grosvenor Road, Belfast, BT12 6DP

The Mulhouse Building is a three-storey brick linen warehouse with an attic storey, built in 1880 in High Victorian style. It stands at the eastern end of the Royal Victoria Hospital complex on Grosvenor Road in Belfast, surrounded by hospital buildings to the west and tarmaced car parks to the north and south, with Roden Street to the east.

The building is aligned east to west with its principal elevation facing north. This façade is 31 openings wide and presents a carefully composed architectural composition. It features vee-jointed stucco quoins at each end and wraparound moulded cill courses running the full length of the building at first and second floor levels, each topped with a thin stucco string course. String courses also run across at arch spring level on the upper floors and under the eaves brackets.

The centrepiece of the north elevation is a formal entrance portico containing a six-panel raised-and-fielded painted timber door flanked by glazed side- and overlights. The door case is flanked on each side by three in-stepping, partly-attached plain columns with Corinthian capitals. The outermost columns support two corbelled brackets that carry a substantial balcony with a deep moulded stucco architrave, panelled frieze and moulded cornice. The balcony is more architectural than functional, with no direct access from ground floor level except via a window. The frieze has two decorative recessed panels to the front and single blank side panels. A raised and fielded plain circular panel set in a semicircular stucco moulding sits in the rectangular space formed by the door head and entablature brackets, with a matching circular stucco panel on the underside of the entablature.

Flanking the entrance are window openings with moulded semicircular heads and vermiculated keystones in stucco, now containing replacement uPVC windows but retaining original stone cills. The first floor has three similarly detailed but larger openings containing 2/2 timber sliding sash windows, with keystones in the form of figureheads and mounded circular panels in the spandrels between them. The second floor has three pairs of 2/2 timber sliding sash windows, each pair set in a common segmental stucco moulded head with figurehead stucco keystones and a column divide. The entrance and windows are demarcated to each side by a shallow brick pilaster. The remaining ground floor and first floor windows match those flanking the entrance, while the second floor windows are similar but unpaired.

The roof is pitched with natural slate, several small skylights to the south pitch, and flagged verges with decorative metal finials and moulded kneelers. The eaves have ogee cast-iron rainwater gutters. Deep overhanging eaves to the front elevation are supported on elongated horizontal moulded brackets. Rear eaves are supported on a corbelled serrated brick eaves course.

The east gable is three openings wide without stucco embellishment. The ground floor is abutted to the left and centre by a later single-storey flat-roofed building and by a metal fire escape staircase at right. The first floor has three round-headed openings—a two-leaf door with overlight to the centre and a 2/2 timber sash window to each side. The second floor has three 2/2 sash windows in segmental heads. There is also a round-headed opening to the gable apex, now sheeted over.

The south (rear) elevation is plain and has been substantially altered. At each end are shallow flat-roofed brick toilet blocks with flat concrete-headed windows, indicating 20th-century additions. A pyramidal brick lift tower, likely a relatively modern addition, stands at the centre. The entire ground floor is abutted by a single-storey annex with a pitched profiled-metal roof, pebble-dashed openings and square-headed windows and doors, probably a modern addition. Most ground floor openings have been infilled or converted into doorways accessing the annex. All upper floor openings contain 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with stone cills; those at first floor level have semicircular heads and those at second floor level are segmental with chamfered edges. The right-hand end is abutted by a long two-storey return with pitched roof (being reclad at the time of survey), pebbledashed walls and assorted openings, possibly an original building noted in the 1900 Valuation but too altered to be of special heritage interest. This building currently houses the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry.

The west gable is similarly plain. The ground floor has a wide segmental-headed doorway, now infilled and plastered over, which was the original goods entrance. To its right is a small fire escape door under a flat concrete head, a much later insertion. The first floor has a doorway at left and a 2/2 sash window to the middle and right, all with semicircular heads. The doorway is connected by a metal footbridge from the west. The second floor has three 2/2 sash windows set in segmental-headed openings. In the apex is a semicircular-headed loading door with a projecting cantilevered jib, which would have been the sole goods intake for the upper floors, though the present jib is undoubtedly a modern replacement. All window openings have stone cills.

Windows throughout consist of uPVC casements on the ground floor and 2/2 timber sliding sashes on the first and second floors. The building is of brick throughout with ogee cast-iron rainwater goods and a natural slate roof.