Musgrave Wing, East and West Wings, Royal Victoria Hospital, Grosvenor Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT12 6BA

Musgrave Wing, East and West Wings, Royal Victoria Hospital

A substantial symmetrical multi-bay four-storey hospital building over basement, built around 1903 to the designs of Henman & Cooper, with the Musgrave Wing extending northwards around 1925. The building forms a U-shaped plan facing north, set back slightly from Grosvenor Road, with a central carriage arch opening into an enclosed courtyard. The original hospital entrance is located opposite, on the far side of the courtyard.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with sandstone dressings to the East and West Wings, and Portland limestone dressings to the Musgrave Wing. Pitched natural slate roofs with lead roll-top ridges and valleys to the east and west wings are topped with lead-clad pedimented timber dormer windows. The Musgrave Wing has a mansard-type lead-lined roof with steep natural slate sloped sides and masonry dormer windows. Profiled red brick chimney stacks are scattered throughout. Moulded cast-iron guttering is supported on dentilled sandstone fascia with cast-iron downpipes.

Windows are largely square-headed within segmental-arched openings formed in soldier-coursed brick with profiled bricks set within the reveal to form transom and blind fanlight over. Sandstone sills support double-hung timber sash windows with ogee horns.

The symmetrical north front elevation is nineteen bays wide. Slightly advanced five-storey gabled sections occupy either end, with a central bell gabled breakfront above the entrance spanning three bays. This breakfront features a broken-apex pediment with mutules above a tripartite arch comprising a carriage entrance in the middle flanked by two pedestrian passageways.

Portland limestone dressings frame the entrance and adjacent windows with architrave surrounds and moulded sills to all openings. A plain entablature runs across the attic storey with a projecting cornice over the third floor windows. A recessed Portland limestone surround encompasses the second and third floors with apron panels and decorative iron balconettes to the second floor supported on large brackets.

The entrance arch itself, executed in Portland limestone, comprises a shallow segmental arch supported by engaged Ionic columns that separate the carriage entrance from the pedestrian entrances. The latter are flanked by panelled pilasters rising to a full entablature. This entrance frames views through to Queen Victoria's statue in the courtyard beyond. Above it stands a central swan-neck open-top pediment (accommodating a central first-floor window) with an open base filled with elaborate swaged carvings and a cartouche. The soffit to the carriage arch has stone coffers rising from a transverse stone entablature supported on paired Ionic columns.

The gabled breakfronts at either end of the north elevation feature two-storey over basement canted bay windows. These breakfronts are embellished with clasping pilasters to the upper three floors formed in brick with sandstone banding and Ionic capitals; rusticated sandstone ashlar quoins to the lower levels. A continuous sandstone sill course runs along the ground floor with a blocking course below, interrupted by Gibbsian-type sandstone heads and keystones to the basement windows. The basement is enclosed by original iron railings set on a brick plinth wall with Portland limestone coping.

The internal south elevation of the Musgrave Wing is eleven windows wide with the entrance bay slightly advanced. The fourth floor is surmounted by a Portland limestone cornice and blocking course with a small open-based pediment to the central window filled with a carving depicting a lion standing on a crown. The entrance bay generally reflects the detailing of the front elevation, including the carriage arch treatment with a pediment filled with a further cartouche and carved banner inscribed "MUSGRAVE MEMORIAL". To either end is a splayed corner bay built in ashlar sandstone, connecting to the east and west wings and featuring steel casement windows and square-headed door openings with ashlar sandstone doorcases surmounted by open-based segmental arched pediments. Replacement timber-panelled doors with latticed fanlights open onto walkways (arcaded over the basement) enclosed to the basement well by iron railings.

The East Wing is a three-storey over basement block with an attic storey, thirteen bays wide, featuring three four-storey over basement advanced gabled projections. The composition is less formal than the principal elevation, with some randomly-placed windows and blind bays to the recessed sections and largely paired windows to the gabled projections. The central gable has a shallow segmental-headed recess to the upper three floors housing paired windows with sandstone keystones and sills, single-pane timber sash windows with margin lights, all surmounted by a segmental arched hood cornice. The south gable to the east wing is three bays wide with paired windows to the centre, abutted by the original hospital corridor to the lower two levels. The west elevation to the east wing is twelve bays wide, detailed as per the east elevation, with the central gable abutted by a single-storey over basement canted bay window surmounted by a sandstone balustrade.

The West Wing is composed and detailed as per the East Wing.

The site is extensive, bounded by Grosvenor Road to the north, the Westlink to the south and Falls Road to the west. A bitumac forecourt area enclosed by red brick perimeter walling fronts Grosvenor Road, with two former gate lodges and iron gates. The internal courtyard features a central bitumac-paved area with a large bronze statue of Queen Victoria at its centre and basement wells to either side (east and west) enclosed by original iron railings on stone copings with stone pillars. The Musgrave basement area is enclosed by red brick retaining walls, while the east and west wings are enclosed by rusticated rock-faced red sandstone retaining walls. The building is part of a wider complex including the Statue of Queen Victoria and the King Edward VII Memorial Building further west.