(Former Extern Waiting Hall), Royal Victoria Hospital, Grosvenor Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT12 6BA

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached symmetrical multi-bay single and two-storey red brick hospital building, built c.1902. Rectangular on plan facing north adjacent to the West Wing (HB26/32/001K) with the Sir Ian Fraser Theatre connected to the southeast corner. The rear of the building abuts the Old Corridor (HB26/32/001H).

Pitched natural slate roofs with lead ridges and valleys. Several timber louvred lanterns to the ridges topped by lead-lined domes and finials. Moulded cast-iron guttering that is supported on a dentilated sandstone cornice that projects at eaves height, and discharging to cast-iron downpipes. Red brick walling laid to Flemish bond with sandstone dressings. Mainly round-headed window openings with some original single-pane timber sash windows having ogee horns and moulded sandstone sills (unless otherwise stated).

Principal Elevation
The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrical, comprising a central double-height entrance bay in the middle that is abutted by a later entrance portico (c.1980), with a pair of shallow projecting gables to either end. The entrance bay forms a shallow breakfront rising above the roof level surmounted by a dressed sandstone crown cornice, slightly bellied to the centre and surmounted by a ball finial. The upper level has a segmental-arched window opening with stepped brick and sandstone headers over a tripartite sandstone window frame filled with Art Nouveau style leaded stained glass. The gables are flanked by red brick and flush sandstone engaged pilasters supporting open-base dentilated pediments. The bay immediately to E of entrance has Venetian window opening formed in ashlar sandstone with central arched window supported on sandstone columns. The mirror of this bay to W of entrance has a single replacement round arched window and some newer brickwork and reconstituted stone cills that suggests that this too originally formed the central opening to a Venetian window. The outer gables formerly filled with large round-headed window openings (to E now blind) with alternating bands of soldier coursed brick and dressed sandstone heads. A single storey abutment further to the E has a raised parapet, corner chimney and is three bays wide with the same sandstone banding and engaged pilasters as the adjoining structure. This abutment is asymmetrical, with two segmental arched window openings to the left and a segmental arched door to the right that features an ornate sandstone aedicule; all openings to this abutment are now blind to N elevation.
Raised gable set behind the entrance bay visible with a single oculus formed in brick headers with scrolled keystone and blocks at compass points, containing nine-pane timber window. Dentilated verge detail to match cornice below.

E elevation comprises return face of single storey abutment with sandstone banding, corner chimney and egaged pilasters to N end, with basement storey having modern casement window adjacent to concrete external steps. Evidence of infilled openings around modern extract vent grilles. Beyond this bay, a later single-storey over basement block with square headed openings to basement level, segmental arched openings above and timber cladding to upper level. To SE end is the Sir Ian Fraser Theatre block, detailed as per front gables, with round arched opening detailed as above, now blind and engaged pilaster with sandstone banding to exposed corner.
The rear (S) elevation abuts the Old Corridor (HB26/32/001H) as a series of flat and hipped roofs that terminate beyond the east and west gables. The two-storey central section has a central camber-headed opening to the rear gable with replacement timber casement window, smaller vent over and same dentilated verge detail as above. E and W gables have semi-circular windows.

The west elevation is hemmed in by a recent modern building and has a bowed central bay. Generally, windows to this elevation are replacement timber casements.

Roof : Natural slate
RWG : Cast-iron
Walling : Red brick with sandstone dressings
Windows : Timber sash / timber casement / uPVC

Setting
Located within the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital between a large modern block to the W and the Musgrave, East and West Wings (HB26.32.00KI) to the E. Bitmac parking area immediately to front, enclosed by red brick wall along boundary with Grosvenor Road

Historical information

In the course of the nineteenth century Belfast expanded at a phenomenal rate. In 1800 its population stood at around 20,000. By 1841 it had reached 70,000 and in 1871 it had topped 120,000, while in 1911 it was 385,000, by some way the largest urban population in Ireland. As Belfast’s population rose, there was increasing pressure on its medical facilities, especially the Belfast Royal Hospital in Frederick Street. By the end of the 1800s it was clear that a new hospital was needed for Belfast.

The Royal Victoria Hospital was built at the junction of the Grosvenor and Falls Roads and was designed by William Henman of Henman & Cooper who had previously been responsible for the Birmingham General Hospital. McLaughlin & Harvey won the contract to build the new hospital in September 1900. The foundation stone was laid early in 1901 and the new hospital was officially opened on 27 July 1903 by Edward VII and Queen Alexandra on their trip to Belfast during visit to Ireland.

The building in question was originally the extern waiting hall. On Henman’s architectural plan of 1902 it is represented as a rectangular block projecting northwards from the main ward block. The entrance was in the north wall, beyond which was a waiting hall with rooms on either side of it. This led through to the connecting corridor of the main ward block.

On the 1907 map it is represented as if it were an open courtyard with the waiting hall unroofed, though this not the case. A photograph of 1903 (Clarke, p. 76) shows the roofed interior of the extern waiting hall. On later Ordnance Survey maps it is shown as a fully roofed building.

Above the door leading through to the main ward block was the Good Samaritan window which had been brought from the earlier Royal Belfast Hospital. It had been donated to this hospital by Sir William Whitla in 1886 and was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1903. The four coats of arms in the window represent the early history of the hospital and of Queen’s University.

In 1947 the Good Samaritan window was transferred to the main corridor. This was as a result of alterations to the extern waiting hall which resulted in it being split horizontally. The outpatient facilities remained for the most part unchanged on the ground floor, while surgical and gynaecological outpatients were moved to the new upper floor. This floor was also used as a Central Registry for patients’ records. In 1969 these functions were transferred to the new Austen Boyd Outpatient Building and in 1973 the ground floor was altered for the Ganymede catering system and cardiac catheterisation facilities. The building is now used for a variety of different purposes.

According to Larmour, Young and Mackensie designed an extension to the Extern Waiting Hall and an octagonal post-mortem room in 1925, although this is not verified in the Dictionary of Irish Architects.

The north front of this building follows the same ‘Wrenaissance’ style employed on the original buildings on the site.

References

Maps

Ordnance Survey 1:1,250 scale map, County Antrim sheet 60.12 (covering Falls Road area of Belfast), 1931 – reproduced by Alan Godfrey Maps (Gateshead, 1989)
1907, 1923 and 1937 Ordnance Survey maps reproduced in Clarke (see below)

Published sources

Robert Marshall, Fifty years on the Grosvenor Road: an account of the rise and progress of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast (Belfast, 1953)
Paul Larmour, Belfast: an illustrated architectural guide (Belfast, 1987)
R. S. J. Clarke, The Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast: a history, 1797-1997 (Belfast, 1997) – especially the Ordnance Survey maps (referred to above) and architectural plan of the hospital of 1902

Online sources

Dictionary of Irish Architects: www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Attached symmetrical multi-bay single and two-storey red brick hospital building, built c.1902 in ‘Wrenaissance’ style to designs by William Henman of Henman & Cooper, to accommodate the rapidly expanding population of Belfast, following the industrial expansion of the city. While the exterior has been altered somewhat by extensions to the front entrance and to the E and W elevations, the overall composition remains intact. It is both rational and elegant with detailing to the entrance that provides a dignified facade on a modest scale, a style aptly described by Larmour as 'reassuring'. The interior retains some original detail and of particular note is the Sir Ian Fraser Theatre. The detailing and architectural devices employed share much with the neighbouring hospital buildings which comprise a valuable group with considerable social significance in the history of Belfast’s development (HB26/32/001A-L).

General comments

Originally named former outpatients HB26/32/001C.