5 Richmond Place (former Royal Blind Asylum Workshops

Peddie and Washington Browne, 1886-88. 3-storey, irregular-plan former workshops with Dutch Renaissance details. Red brick with polished red sandstone dressings and banding. Sandstone base course; capitalled column mullions to bipartite windows; chamfered reveals; moulded band course above 3rd floor; cavetto cornice.

The east (entrance) elevation is 5 bays with a 3-bay single storey wing adjoining set at oblique angle from 2 bays to outer right. Round-arched pend in bay to left of centre; replacement 2-leaf sliding doors; bipartite windows at 1st and 2nd floors; crowstepped gable above. Round-headed bipartite windows at ground in bays to centre and outer left; single windows at 1st and 2nd floors above. Bipartite windows at 1st and 2nd floors in bays to outer right. Single storey 3-bay wing adjoining; central round-arched gateway; 2-leaf boarded doors with small-pane glazing above; iron hinges; round-arched windows in flanking bays.

The north elevation is 6 bays. Single storey monopitch-roofed wing with skylights advanced at ground. Bipartite windows at 1st and 2nd floors in 2 bays to outer left; stepped gable above. Bipartite windows to 1st and 2nd floors in 2 bays to outer right. Single windows to 1st and 2nd floors in 2 central bays.

To the south there is a brick gable adjoining a tenement.

The west elevation is adjoined to earlier workshops. Small-pane fixed for casement windows with top hoppers. Green slate roof; terracotta ridging and chimney cans; ridge ventilator; cast-iron rainwater goods; rooflights to N.

The interior was seen in 2015 and has been subdivided to form student accomodation with a café area to the ground floor. There is no late 19th century detailing apparent to the interior.