Cliftonville Primary School, 93 Cliftonville Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT14 6JQ

Cliftonville Primary School is a two-storey Art Deco style school complex dating from 1937–38, designed by Belfast Corporation architect R. S. Wilshere and built by Thomas McKee & Sons. The complex is arranged around a central quadrangle with single-storey flat-roofed extensions to the north-west and north-east, and occupies its own grounds to the north of Cliftonville Road. The school currently uses the majority of the building, with Educational Welfare Offices and Department of the Environment Road Safety Offices occupying the ground floor of the west wing.

The roofs are principally hipped with red clay Roman tiles and raised parabets topped with concrete coping to the south elevation. Hipped roofs with red clay tiles and projecting eaves feature on the east elevations of the east and west wings. Flat roofs are felted with raised parabets and concrete coping. Square-section chimneystacks have corbelled coping. Decorated cast iron hoppers discharge to cast iron circular downpipes. The walling is of rustic red brick laid in a variation of Flemish bond with projecting courses at various heights. Windows are generally square-headed openings with timber casements and horizontal glazing bars, though some have been replaced with uPVC.

The principal south elevation consists of a two-storey flat-roofed bay to the west end, a double-height hipped roof bay immediately to the east, a recessed three-storey flat-roofed tower, and a single-storey flat-roofed building with a curving elevation to the east end. A cantilevered concrete canopy shelters the west entrance, which has a double-leaf modern door and glazed side lights. A timber window with top lights sits to the west of the entrance on the ground floor. An eight-part horizontal band of tall windows runs across the hipped roof bay. The tower has a square-headed door opening with a double-leaf timber panelled door beneath a concrete cantilevered canopy, and a pair of tall narrow windows extending from ground to first floor separated by a curved brick pier. The eastern bays contain four-part and four small narrow windows respectively. The curving elevation continues eastward with a horizontal band of windows featuring horizontal glazing bars.

The east elevation shows a single-storey flat-roofed curving section to the south end, a single bay to the north, and a long two-storey east wing further north. A single-storey flat-roofed block connects the east wing to a double-height flat-roofed building to the east, with a later single-storey flat-roofed three-bay extension to the north-east end. A square-headed door opening with a double-leaf metal door sits in the bay immediately north of the curving elevation. Horizontal corner windows appear to the north of this. The east wing itself is a long hipped-roof block with horizontal bands of curtain glazing featuring horizontal panes on both ground and first floors, flanked by two-storey flat-roofed bays at both north and south ends, each with a ground floor window opening. The double-height building displays a tall band of windows, with three bays of glazed walling to the north-east extension.

The north elevation appears to feature a large double-height flat-roofed circular-plan building at the centre with a tall band of windows, flanked by single-storey flat-roofed buildings with curving corners connecting to single-storey flat-roofed extensions at both east and west ends, most of which are later additions.

The west elevation consists of a long two-storey hipped-roof west wing to the north end, abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed modern extension to its west side. The west elevation of the wing has full-height windows and glazed doors to the ground floor, a series of oblong windows with decorative metalwork above, and a long horizontal band of windows to the first floor, now interrupted by two modern extensions. The south end of the west elevation appears to have been altered with replacement uPVC windows.

The school complex sits within its own grounds, with tarmaced parking to the south and north-west, a tarmaced yard to the east, and playing fields to the north. The central quadrangle is lawned with tarmaced pathways along each side. The site is enclosed by fencing to the north and east, stepped red brick walling to the west topped with concrete coping and painted metal railings, and metal railings to the south. Gates to the south and east consist of modern painted metal railings supported on square-section red brick piers with projecting stone plinths and moulded stone coping. An opening in the west walling suggests a former gate now blocked.

Materials include cast iron rainwater goods, with some uPVC replacements to the west elevation.