Royal Victoria Pavilion

Superb seaside architecture, a landmark building and occupying a central position on Ramsgate’s seafront, the Pavilion was designed by architect and town planner, Stanley Davenport Adshead, who later went on to design the present auditoria at London, Haymarket (1905), and the Liverpool Playhouse (1911). The exterior is comparatively little altered, a long, low building with a distinctly French seaside flavour. Single storey base, open as a colonnade with iron columns toward the sea, enclosed at the ends with Greek Doric columns engaged to the piers of (now blind) arcade. On the town side the entrances have been altered but domes flanked by reclining male and female figures are still present. The platform above the ground storey is enclosed on all sides by an ornamental iron balustrade. The main block is set back, rising above the platform with a boldly curved, metal clad roof with a robust crowning moulding. The interior (which was said to be derived from Gabriel’s theatre at Versailles, 1770) had been simplified by the 1930s before being adapted for new uses in the 1970s.club.