Royal Victoria Patriotic Building

The Royal Victoria Patriotic Building stands on the edge of Wandsworth Common in south-west London. It is a large Victorian structure in Gothic Revival style, mixing Scottish Baronial and French Châteauesque elements. Designed by Major Rohde Hawkins, it was built in 1859 as a school for girls orphaned during the Crimean War. The building is made of yellow brick with York stone dressings and has three storeys arranged around two courtyards. Its steeply pitched slate roof is punctuated by five major towers and many smaller turrets, with a statue of St George and the Dragon above the central frontispiece. The building’s history reflects its changing uses over the centuries. It began as the Royal Victoria Patriotic School, funded by public subscription through Prince Albert’s Royal Patriotic Fund. During the First World War it became the 3rd London General Hospital, treating thousands of wounded soldiers. In the Second World War it served as the London Reception Centre, where 34,000 civilians arriving from occupied Europe were questioned by MI5. After the war it housed schools and a teachers’ training college before falling into disrepair. Today the restored building contains small businesses, 29 flats and the Le Gothique restaurant. The main hall, with its hammer beam ceiling, was recreated after an arson attack using a photographic survey. Visitors can walk through the courtyards and along the corridors lined with surviving boarded roofs and carved foliage. The surrounding Wandsworth Common offers open space and views of the building’s towers and turrets against the London skyline.