Front of Original Hospital, Royal Victoria Hospital, Grosvenor Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT12 6BA

Front of Original Hospital, Royal Victoria Hospital

This is the front entrance of the original Royal Victoria Hospital, a symmetrical multi-bay single-storey red brick building built around 1901. It is attached to a transverse corridor known as the Old Corridor running east to west along the rear, which connected to an engine room at its eastern end. The building is irregular in plan and faces north into a courtyard enclosed by the Musgrave Wing to the north and east, with east and west wings flanking the sides. While the original wards that once led off the Old Corridor have been demolished, two of the original three-stage square towers remain standing to the east near the engine room, with a modern metal-clad building now attached to the north.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with sandstone dressings. Pitched natural slate roofs with lead ridges and valleys cover the structure. A raised central section features a timber louvered lantern to its ridge surmounted by a lead-lined dome and finial. The Old Corridor also has a natural slate roof with lead ridge and a series of fixed-pane skylights set into angled eaves on either side. Moulded cast-iron guttering is supported on a dentilated sandstone ashlar eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes below. Window openings are largely square-headed, containing single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns and moulded sandstone sills.

The symmetrical north front elevation is the building's principal face. It comprises a central double-height gabled entrance bay with an entrance portico, flanked by two recessed bays which are in turn flanked by a pair of advanced gabled projections. All three gables are framed by red brick and flush sandstone engaged pillars supporting open-base dentilated pediments. The side gables feature Venetian window openings executed in ashlar sandstone, with the central arched window supported on columns and a fixed fanlight to the arch. The small recessed bays are enclosed by decorative sandstone renaissance-style balustrades and later decorative iron railings.

The central entrance portico is particularly notable. It comprises a depressed central arch supported on paired sandstone blocked columns beneath a full-span sandstone lintel. Above this sits a deep cornice surmounted by a shallow scrolled and dentilated pediment, from which rises a copper globe supported on an elaborate scrolled keystone. The red brick parapet wall above the portico has moulded sandstone coping. The cheeks to the portico contain diminutive square-headed window openings with sandstone surrounds and decorative leaded stained glazing in Art Nouveau style. The portico floor is ramped in concrete and fitted with replacement timber doors having glazed upper panes. The central double-height entrance bay above contains six small square windows, three on either side of the lower ridges, with continuous flush sandstone lintel and cill.

The east side elevation is blank and is abutted by a later single-storey over basement flat-roofed wing that connects the building to the East Wing. This later addition has two camber-headed window openings with iron grilles and a lean-to canopy over the basement. The rear elevation faces south and is abutted by the transverse Old Corridor running east to west, which terminates in a further wing to the east containing the Engine House. Two three-stage towers separated by a later duo-pitched extension abut the south elevation adjacent to this Engine House. A single round-headed former window opening is visible to the central gable overlooking the corridor. The west elevation is blank and abutted by a further wing built around 1950, which connects the building to the West Wing.

The engine house to the east comprises a symmetrical gable-fronted block constructed of red brick and sandstone, connected to the Old Corridor via a taller block flanked by a pair of three-stage towers. This wing has pitched natural slate roofs with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, moulded cast-iron guttering, and cast-iron downpipes. The north and south elevations of the engine house contain seven square-headed openings with continuous flush sandstone lintel and sandstone sills. These openings have timber louvres, still partly visible although some are boarded up; these louvres were originally the air intake grilles for a pioneering air conditioning system. The central three openings of these elevations have a semi-circular window above, formed with brick and sandstone arches.

The east front elevation of the engine house features a projecting central gabled bay containing a central replacement timber double door with an original timber-framed multi-paned overlight. Two sash windows flank the door on either side, these retaining original multi-pane timber frames with bottom-hung overlights. A continuous lintel with pedimented stone sits over the door, above which is a circular window with recessed brick circular opening and sandstone voussoirs. Six cast-iron pattress plates are equally spaced between the windows. Three window openings flank the projecting bay on each side; those to the south are boarded up, while the central opening to the north bay has been lowered to ground level and replaced with a steel roller shutter.

The building is located to the rear of the Musgrave Wing within an internal courtyard, positioned to the north of an extensive hospital site bounded by Grosvenor Road to the north, Falls Road to the west, and the Westlink to the south and east. A bronze statue of Queen Victoria, originally positioned over the main door, now stands in the middle of the quadrangle immediately in front of this entrance.