Royal Victoria Hospital East Lodge and Gateway, Craigleith Road, Edinburgh

Unusual Arts and Crafts style asymmetrical lodge atop tall Tudor arched stone entrance pend to former hospital site. Rubble stone walls with smooth rounded ashlar quoins to pend and stone corbels supporting angled timber bracket supports for lodge above. Single window to left over carved stone panel. Slate hung elevations to lodge with 11 section-mullioned, multipane windows incorporating canted bay to left to street elevation. Half-rounded stone stair tower to rear with entrance under pend. Full height, riveted and boarded timber gates on tall single hinge mechanism. Timber boarded ceiling to pend and overhangs.

Predominantly 8-pane timber side hung and mullioned casement windows to upper floor. Bellcast roof with graded grey slates; off centre ridge stack; boarded timber entrance door to pend. Cast-iron rainwater goods.

A very distinctive Arts and Crafts style lodge cantilevered over a tall stone entrance gateway by a renowned Scottish architect and prominently sited in the streetscape clearly marking the entrance to the former Royal Victoria Hospital, historically important in the development of tuberculosis treatment.

The Royal Victoria Hospital developed on its current site with a revolutionary new treatment ethos to combat tuberculosis in 1894. The pioneering new treatment programme lead by Dr Robert Philip (1857-1939) required patients to be exposed the sun and fresh air; it was a non-medical programme to treat the disease in its early stages. Dr Philip had run a successful dispensary from 1887 but the opening of a treatment sanatorium was a considerable step forward in the development of fighting the disease.

The hospital was originally housed in Craigleith House, the former villa on the site. 5 Butterfly-plan pavilion 'sun houses' were built in the grounds from 1903-1907. The administration block (see separate listing) and the gateway lodge were both built in 1906 by Sydney Mitchell and Wilson as part of this development phase on site. The hospital was converted to care for the elderly circa 1954. A large new ward block was built 1967 and extended in the late 1980s at which point the butterfly wards were demolished. The administrative block and the lodge gateway are the two remaining buildings that relate to the development of the tuberculosis hospital in the early 20th century.

The gateway and associated administration block are very much in the ethos of the Arts and Crafts movement which looked to traditional styles and methods in reaction to mass production and mechanisation. The buildings were designed by Sydney Mitchell (1856-1930) who was a prominent and inventive architect of the period who made use of a range of different architectural styles in his work.

The carved stone panel reads 'The Royal Victoria Hospital' and used to continue 'for Consumption' but the latter was chiselled off sometime around 1954 when the hospital was converted to care for the elderly. The lodge was used for caretaker's living accommodation.

List description and statutory address updated, 2012. (Historic Environment Scotland List Entry)

3 September 2020: Parts of the Royal Victoria Hospital are thought to have been redeveloped. It is unclear whether the former lodge building has been re-used. The wider site is recorded within the Vacant and Derelict Land survey. For Investigation

21 October 2020: External inspection finds the former lodge vacant, disused and in overall Fair condition. External inspection was conducted from Craigleith Rd. therefore the rear elevation was not observed. Heras fencing secures access to the main gate. Some slipped slates visible on roof. Ivy growth is beginning to take hold of part of the front elevation. Vegetation blocks a downpipe and hole in gutter at east elevation. Minimal number of broken windowpanes. Paint flaking from timber window elements. Significant crack developing at boundary wall where it joins lodge at east. Moved to At Risk.

16 November 2021: Local planners note the site is allocated for housing in the proposed City Plan 2030.