Sydenham Primary School, Strandburn Street, Belfast, Co Down, BT4 1LX

Sydenham Primary School is a Modern Style single-storey primary school built in 1950, designed by R.S. Wilshire. It is located at the north-east end of Strandburn Street in Sydenham, Belfast. The building is constructed largely from prefabricated aluminium units.

In plan, the school is roughly asymmetrical, resembling the shape of the letter 'P'. It consists of a quadrangle containing classrooms and offices, with an assembly hall, and a projecting wing to the south-east. The quadrangle is constructed from corrugated aluminium units (largely painted) with large areas of aluminium-framed glazing. Many glazed areas are interspersed with projecting angled piers or struts which help support the overhang of the roof. The east and west wings of the quadrangle are both classroom blocks and have shallow pitched felted gabled roofs. Photographic evidence suggests the roofs were originally aluminium panelled. The much narrower corridor wing to the north side has a flat roof. The corridor wing was originally open to the south (inner) side but is now fully enclosed. The wing to the west has a lower, almost full-length flat-roofed corridor projection to its west side. To the south end of this projection is a small brick boiler room extension added in the 1990s.

The main entrance is set to the left side of the east façade of the east wing and consists of a largely glazed timber double door with a projecting hood over. The south wing, which largely contains offices and toilets, is slightly lower and narrower than the classroom blocks but much the same in appearance. This wing stretches east beyond the quadrangle to form the projecting south-east corridor wing. The latter wing is of the same aluminium construction as much of the rest of the school but was extended around 2001 in brick to the north side. This extension consists of two distinct sections: the taller section to the west side has a mono-pitched felted roof, while the section to the east has an unusual raised butterfly roof and functions as a covered play area. At the east end, the projecting wing abuts another classroom block, similar to the other classroom blocks but much smaller.

To the south-east corner of the quadrangle is a large assembly hall, which unlike the rest of the building is constructed in brick and is significantly taller than the other sections. It has a large area of glazing to its east façade and a shallow pitched felted gabled roof with brick parapets to the gables. A large water tank projection rises from the north-west corner of the assembly hall. To its south-east corner, the hall links to the taller section of the brick-built extension to the north side of the south-east projecting wing.

The rainwater goods are a mixture of PVC and metal. Enclosed by the quadrangle is a garden, whilst to the east and south-east of the complex is a large tarmac-covered schoolyard.

To the north-east is a large separate dining hall block, built in 1959. This is largely single-storey and constructed in concrete brick and render with steel-framed windows. Its roof is felt-covered and part flat and part butterfly, with the latter rising higher to form a clerestorey section. To the west end is a small two-storey boiler house portion.