King Edward VII Buildings, Royal Victoria Hospital, Grosvenor Road, Belfast

King Edward VII Buildings at Royal Victoria Hospital

A detached, symmetrical, multi-bay three-storey building over basement, erected in 1914 and constructed in red brick laid in English garden wall bond with ashlar sandstone dressings. The building is crowned by a distinctive copper-clad dome to the north elevation and features an entrance portico to the east.

The building is quadrangular on plan with a central double-height Dining Hall structure comprising the interior core. It is located on a prominent corner site to the northwest of the Royal Victoria Hospital complex, enclosed by railings to Grosvenor Road to the north and Falls Road to the west.

The roofs are pitched natural slate with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, lead valleys and moulded cast-iron guttering supported on a dentilated sandstone eaves course with cast-iron downpipes. Glazed sections rise to the apex of the south wing.

The copper dome surmounts the ridge of the north elevation. It features an octagonal moulded copper cornice on a raised band, decorated at regular spacings with lion-head motifs to its base and surmounted by a copper crown with a miniature lion finial.

Window openings are formed as segmental arches in gauged brick with sandstone keystones and sills, set in slightly advanced brick surrounds. They retain largely original single-pane timber sash windows with slender ogee horns, and timber casement windows to the ground floor.

The north elevation presents a symmetrical composition with a central breakfront surmounted by a dentilated open-base segmental pediment filled with stone carving depicting a royal coat of arms flanked by heraldic beasts. Tripartite segmental arched window openings occupy the first floor, with round-arched openings to the second floor, each having ashlar sandstone surrounds, projecting keystones and continuous moulded sill courses. A single segmental arched window opening at ground floor level has a sandstone surround rising to a pedimented head and moulded hood. The central breakfront is flanked by five bays and advanced gabled end bays. Windows to recessed bays are generally segmental arched with 1/1 pane original sliding sash windows, raised brick surrounds and plain sandstone keystones. Ground floor windows are wider, fitted with replacement side-hung vertical casements and top-hung overlights. The advanced gabled end bays are framed by full-height sandstone banded red brick clasping pilasters with tripartite window openings having plain sandstone surrounds. A tripartite doorcase to the ground floor of the east end gable comprises double-leaf timber panelled doors and overlight, flanked by replacement top-hung casement windows within segmental arched openings, all set in a sandstone surround with keystones. This opens onto a bitumac area via three concrete steps.

The east elevation is symmetrical with a pedimented entrance breakfront abutted by a tripartite sandstone portico and flanked by a pair of advanced gabled end bays. Intended as the principal elevation, it is now largely obscured by a late twentieth-century building to the east. The entrance bay is three windows wide, each flanked by banded sandstone pilasters rising from the portico and supporting a full dentilated pediment. The pediment houses a clock face with Roman numerals flanked by large scrolled brackets and surmounted by a diminutive broken pediment. The inner two pilasters support a sandstone frieze with raised carved lettering reading "KING EDWARD VII / MEMORIAL / 1914", and are topped by a further dentilated cornice. The portico rises from basement level, constructed in rock-faced rusticated sandstone with tooled edges to the ground floor, supporting a plain entablature with a corbelled cornice topped by an arcaded sandstone balustrade. The portico retains replacement timber windows and fixed plain glazing to the cheeks. The gabled end bays have a single window to each floor, detailed as per the north elevation. Adjacent to the portico's north cheek, a window opening has been converted into the principal entrance with a timber glazed door.

The south elevation is symmetrical with three advanced gabled bays constructed in red brick with sandstone sills and keystones, otherwise detailed as per the north elevation.

The west elevation is seven windows wide with advanced gabled end bays, detailed as per the north elevation, except that the central and left windows of the southern advanced bay have been infilled.

To the centre of the quadrangular plan sits a double-height gable-ended red brick enclosure with a corrugated metal duo-pitched roof comprising the Dining Hall. This roof profile does not match the ceiling profile inside. At second floor level, a profiled metal-clad cantilevered structure supported on metal brackets runs along the east, south and west elevations with uPVC casement windows. Below this walkway, original timber sliding sash windows with 1/1 panes are spaced at regular intervals.

The building sits on a prominent northwest corner site of the Royal Victoria Hospital complex, enclosed to Grosvenor Road by a tall red brick wall with stone coping and to Falls Road by replacement steel railings.