Shaftsbury Square Hospital, 116 Great Victoria Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT2 7BG

Shaftsbury Square Hospital, 116 Great Victoria Street, Belfast

This is a former hospital building, constructed in 1867 to designs by the Belfast architect William Joseph Barre (1830–1867), and one of his final works before his death from consumption in the same year as its completion. The building opened on 1 January 1868 as the Belfast Ophthalmic Institution and Eye and Ear Hospital, built in memory of Thomas Hughes (died 1848) by his daughter Lady Johnson and funded by a total donation of £5,000 from Lady Johnson and her husband Sir William Johnson, at a total construction cost of £2,230. The contractors were Messrs Fulton. The land on which it stands was donated by the Reverend Henry Cooke of May Street Presbyterian Church shortly before his own death in 1868. The building is currently vacant.

Architectural Character and Exterior

The building is symmetrical and end-of-terrace in position, two storeys in height and multi-bay in width, rectangular on plan, and faces west, terminating a terrace of varied building types lining the east side of Great Victoria Street. A large vacant plot lies to its north (currently a self-service petrol station), with a rear access lane serving much of the terrace. An additional single bay was added to the south end around 1927 by architects Blackwood and Jury, employing similar materials and sympathetic detailing. A multi-bay two-storey-with-attic red brick return on an L-plan is attached to the rear, enclosing a small yard.

The roofs are pitched and clad in natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles. There are two profiled red brick chimneystacks at either end, with octagonal clay pots to the south chimney only. The gable ends have stepped cement copings terminating in gableted masonry skew corbels. Rainwater goods are cast iron, with decorative deep red brick eaves corbelling, cast-iron guttering and cast-iron downpipes.

The walls are built in yellow brick laid in Flemish bond with several flush red brick courses, continuous painted moulded sandstone sill courses with an angled red brick course beneath, and a basalt ashlar plinth course with painted sandstone trim. The round-headed window openings have stop-chamfered surrounds with alternating red brick and sandstone stepped arches, and single-pane timber sash windows.

Principal Elevation

The symmetrical front (west) elevation has four windows to the ground floor with a central entrance, and three paired windows to the first floor. The additional southern bay added by Blackwood and Jury employs similar materials. Round-headed window openings are arranged in pairs to the first floor, each pair separated by a central painted sandstone column with stiff-leaf capitals.

The central entrance has a round-headed door opening with a compound moulded red brick and painted sandstone arch, stop-chamfered jambs, and engaged columns with stiff-leaf capitals rising from stop-chamfered plinth bases. The original double-leaf timber panelled doors survive, with prismatic panels, a splayed sandstone lintel with bowtel moulding, and raised numerals reading '1867'. The door opens onto a concrete-paved platform reached by six concrete steps enclosed by modern railing on a modern plinth wall with gabled kneeler stones, added around 1990. A yellow brick screen wall abuts the north end, with a round-headed door opening and steel door giving access to the rear.

Side and Rear Elevations

The north side elevation is built in red brick with a single off-centre window opening to each floor. It extends to the rear in three distinct stages with pitched natural slate roofs of varying heights and various profiled red brick chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots. There are various replacement timber casement windows and blocked-up window openings, with a lean-to wing abutting the larger return.

The rear has a double-gabled elevation abutted by the two-storey-with-attic return. The gabled rear elevation has steel casement windows, while the return has horizontally glazed 2/2 timber sash windows. The east end of the return is abutted by a further two-storey projection extending southward, which has sandstone quoins and segmental-headed window openings formed in red sandstone with bowtel mouldings and steel casement windows. A red brick screen wall encloses the rear yard to the rear access lane, with a segmental-headed door opening matching the window openings.

The south side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building at number 118.

Interior

The original internal layout of the 1880 hospital comprised a committee room, a caretaker's room, two wards, and a waiting room on the ground floor, an operating room on the first floor, and three additional wards in the rear return. The hospital was notably well equipped at the time of opening, including an ophthalmoscopic room that could be lightened or darkened at the operator's choice. The internal layout has been partially altered, though some elements of a typical Victorian interior survive.

Historical Background

The Belfast Ophthalmic Institution had been founded in 1844 by Dr Samuel Brown. Its 1895 annual report recorded that 1,700 cases were treated during that year, all funded by subscribers, and its then head, Dr J. M. Barnett, described the hospital as meeting a large and growing need in Belfast by providing free consultation and treatment to poor labourers who could not afford healthcare.

Dr Samuel Brown, the first surgeon of the Ophthalmic Hospital, was also a prominent civic figure, appointed Mayor of Belfast in 1870. His son, John Walton Brown, also became a surgeon at the hospital and worked there until his death in 1923, by which time the hospital was handling around 2,300 cases per year. Brown had advocated for a fully equipped dedicated eye hospital for Belfast comparable to those in large English and Scottish cities. Shortly after his death, the south bay was added in 1926–1928 to help meet growing demand, but by 1942 annual cases had risen to over 5,000.

The hospital's rateable value was originally set at £75 in 1867 and held at that level until 1906, when it was increased to £80. This was considered too high and was reduced to £45 in 1910 following an application. The addition of the south bay raised the value to £66, where it remained through the Annual Revisions to 1930. Under the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935 the value was recalculated at £295. Under the second general revaluation in 1956 it stood at £650, reduced to £520 under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act, and increased again to £600 by the end of the 1972 revaluation.

The Belfast Ophthalmic Institution continued to operate throughout the Second World War but vacated the premises in 1946 when a new eye, ear, nose and throat department opened at the Royal Victoria Hospital. The building continued in use as a hospital under the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority after 1946. It was renamed Shaftsbury Square Hospital in 1969. The building was listed in 1988 and subsequently operated as a medical centre specialising in the treatment of patients with substance abuse and addiction until 2010.

William Joseph Barre had originally worked in Newry from around 1850 before moving to Belfast in 1860 following his successful competition entry for the design of the Ulster Hall. Between 1860 and 1867 his practice flourished, and this hospital stands as one of his final designs.