Mater Hospital, 45-51 Crumlin Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT14 6AB

Mater Hospital is a detached symmetrical multi-bay three-storey building over partial basement, constructed around 1900 to designs by William J. Fennell. It is built in red brick in a Tudoresque style and occupies its own grounds on the north side of Crumlin Road in Belfast.

The building is laid out on a pavilion plan. Its composition comprises a central block flanked by a pair of gabled wings and a further pair of advanced castellated blocks. These sections are connected by a rear corridor with a central rear projection housing the chapel and a further rear projection to the east block. The pitched natural slate roofs to the central sections carry roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and several profiled red brick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. The roofs sit behind slightly raised gables with moulded limestone coping and decorative kneeler stones. Moulded steel guttering runs along a moulded eaves course with cast-iron and plastic downpipes. The machine-made red brick walling is laid in Flemish bond with a projecting red brick plinth course at basement level having chamfered limestone trim.

The majority of window openings are segmental-headed, formed in gauged brick with bowtel moulded surrounds, moulded limestone sills and uPVC windows.

The symmetrical front elevation is four windows wide at second floor. The central block features a decorative gable, a projecting limestone entrance porch and two-storey castellated bays set diagonally at either corner. Flanking the central section are a pair of single-bay three-storey wings, each fronted by two-storey canted bays with set back connecting bays to either side. Multi-bay three-storey castellated advanced blocks flank the entire composition, each framed by a pair of full-height advanced canted castellated towers.

The central section has a decorative gable surmounted by a limestone cross and housing a trefoil canopied niche. Within the niche rests a stone statue of Mary on a base supported on clustered colonettes and foliate corbelling and capital. A three-sided canted bay to the first floor is formed in limestone ashlar with a castellated red brick parapet and Gothic window openings with transoms and original leaded coloured glazing to the overlights. This bay window rests on a rectangular plan buttressed entrance porch with an elaborately carved tripartite limestone ashlar front and red brick cheeks. A three-centred compound moulded door opening is flanked by pointed-headed cusped sidelights with splayed sills and a replacement glazed door and glazing. Decoratively carved foliate spandrels sit over the entrance, framed by a continuous hood moulding and a painted panel above bearing raised lettering that states 'MATER INFIRMORUM HOSPITAL'. The door opens onto a replacement masonry-clad platform and flight of steps enclosed by a low red brick raking wall with moulded limestone coping and terminated by a pair of limestone pedestals supporting decorative cast-iron lamps.

The diagonal two-storey bay windows have slender three-centred arched window openings, paired to the front with continuous terracotta hood mouldings and surmounted by castellations. Between the central block and the gabled wings is a single-bay connecting wing, originally single-storey, which was infilled by a further two storeys around 1980.

The gabled wings are abutted by two-storey canted bays with castellated parapets and transomed window openings formed in limestone, with some original overlights remaining. The second floor has tripartite windows with continuous terracotta hood mouldings throughout. The west wing has an ogee retaining wall enclosing the basement area.

The advanced blocks carry castellated parapets rising to a central gable surmounted by a limestone cross, with a blind red brick roundel to each gable. All window openings have continuous terracotta hood mouldings spanning across the towers. A concrete balcony spanning the space between the towers runs at first and second floors with decorative cast-iron bellied balustrades. Below the first floor balcony of the west block is a three-sided canted infill bay, with a later infill to the east block.

The planar west side elevation to the west block features an advanced full-height single-bay gabled projection having limestone coping and cross. This elevation has plainer segmental-headed window openings with sandstone sills and is abutted by two chimneystacks.

The multi-bay three-storey rear elevation is abutted by later single-storey accretions and a four-storey modern terracotta-clad extension built around 2010. The extension houses a full-height atrium with an elaborate Gothic stone doorcase repositioned from the rear of the chapel and inserted into a prefabricated wall. The chapel projects beyond the rear elevation and is surmounted by a further two storeys with tall square-headed windows having bipartite cusped windows with leaded coloured glazing.

The multi-bay three-storey over basement east side elevation is detailed as per the west side elevation. An enclosed glass-clad walkway connects the Dorrian to the MacCauley Building, dating from around 1980.

The building is set on the north side of Crumlin Road within its own grounds. A bitumac front area is enclosed by a low red brick wall with limestone coping and decorative wrought-iron railings with matching gates. The gates are supported on elaborate limestone ashlar piers with Gothic carvings.