Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education (BIFHE), Ormeau Embankment, Belfast

This was a large, two-storey school building with a hipped roof, built in 1925 to designs by W.G. Davies. It stood on the north side of Ormeau Embankment, next to the junction with Ravenhill Road, in Belfast. Originally constructed as a Public Elementary School, it was later used as a further and higher education college before being demolished during or before 2003.

The building was designed in a modern style with vague Queen Anne overtones, faced in rustic brick and reconstituted stone, with rows of large mullioned and transomed windows. In very rough terms, the original school had an E-shaped plan, with a long front wing facing Ormeau Embankment, rear returns at the east and west ends, and a larger assembly hall return at the centre. However, single-storey sections extending from the end returns and the sides of the assembly hall connected these elements, creating an overall figure-of-eight shaped plan enclosing two grass-covered yards.

The south-facing front elevation was dominated by a full-height central bay with an Empire-style appearance in reconstituted sandstone-like stone. At ground floor level this bay contained a relatively small entrance door (no longer in use at the time of survey) with a panelled and glazed double door and a large fanlight with margin panes. To either side of the doorway were low projecting piers that appeared to serve no structural purpose. Above the doorway was a small balcony with scalloped corners and simple decorative railings, its floor supported on simple panelled brackets. At first floor level the central bay had a tall window with a mullioned and transomed frame with margin panes — a treatment repeated, in generally much broader form, across most of the building's windows, the majority of which had been replaced with PVC frames by the time of survey. To either side of this window were broad panelled pilasters rising to parapet level, intersected at verge level by a projecting course also in reconstituted stone. At parapet level, between the pilasters, a recessed panel displayed a decorative moulded coat of arms of the City of Belfast. This recessed section rose above the pilasters and was topped with a reeded string course with a stepped blocking course above.

To either side of the central bay, the front elevation was divided into three identical bays, each separated by a brick pilaster or pier, with a further projecting bay at each end. The three identical bays were largely in rustic brick, each with a large full-width window to both ground and first floor, a large panel of reconstituted stone between the floors, and ground floor aprons, plinth, and lintels also in stone. The brick pilasters between bays each carried a cast iron downspout with a decorative hopper. The projecting end bays were mainly in brick with a full-height central section in reconstituted stone and a relatively small window to each floor within that stone section. A projecting string course ran across the whole elevation above first floor window level, with a brick parapet above finished with stone coping. The piers between bays and the central stone sections of the end bays continued through to parapet level.

The short west elevation of the original school — actually the west face of the western rear return — was abutted on its left-hand side by the east end of the large 1960s addition. The remaining original section to the right had two bays with large windows and stone panels as on the front elevation, and a recessed bay to the far right, all in brick, with two relatively small windows to each floor, topped with a parapet similar to that of the front.

The east elevation — the east face of the eastern rear return — had a two-storey section to the left repeating the styling of the front and west elevations, with a projecting bay to the right carrying large windows, a stone panel and plinth, and a recessed bay to the left with two relatively small windows per floor. The right-hand half of this elevation presented a stark contrast: it comprised a functional single-storey section cut across by a makeshift corrugated iron-clad stairwell extending from the north-facing gable of the two-storey section. This untidy arrangement appeared to result from the partial demolition of what had originally been a fully two-storey elevation, with its northern half apparently removed at some point, possibly in the 1970s.

The rear north elevation faced directly onto Park Parade. It was wholly in red brick and had a plain, functional appearance. To the left it was single storey, rising to two and a half storeys at the centre — the rear elevation of the large assembly hall return — before reducing to single storey again, then culminating in a two-storey section at the far right, which was the north elevation of the west rear return. This elevation was interspersed with windows of various sizes, mostly relatively small, along with some doors, and broke into a recessed bay at the far right.

The building enclosed two grass-covered yards. The west yard was bounded to the south by the rear of the main two-storey front section, to the west by the west return, to the east by the assembly hall, and to the north by a single-storey flat-roofed toilet block. The two-storey section forming the southern boundary was a flat-roofed projection extending from the rear of the main hipped-roof front section. It appeared originally to have had an open corridor at ground floor level, later enclosed with steel-framed glazed panels of approximately 1970s appearance. The first floor, which had always appeared to be enclosed, was in red brick with a series of relatively small mullioned and transomed windows with Georgian-style panes. This arrangement was repeated on the west side. The east side of this yard was formed by the west-facing elevation of the two-storey assembly hall, which had a series of full-height mullioned and transomed windows. The single-storey toilet block to the north had a series of large glazed panels similar to those of the enclosed corridor to the south. The yard itself contained some small greenhouses at the time of survey. The east yard mirrored this arrangement, except that the section to its east was two-storey to the right (south) side only, with a single-storey flat-roofed section in render with large modern windows to the left.

The roof was mainly hipped and covered in red clay pantiles. At the east and west ends stood tall chimneystacks in rustic brick. Rainwater goods were in cast iron.

A small extension was added to the west side in 1936 to plans by R.S. Wilshere. Close to the junction of this extension with the original school, a hipped-roof section appeared to represent this earlier addition. Extending from the west side of the original school was a very large, mainly three-storey complex built as a further addition in approximately 1960, which was actually considerably larger than the original building. This addition was in an overtly modern style, largely flat-roofed, with panel construction and much curtain walling. To the south-west of the original school stood a plain, free-standing two-storey brick house built in 1949 as the caretaker's residence, also designed by Wilshere. To the south and east of the original school was a large car park enclosed by relatively plain iron railings.

The building was assessed in August 2001 as worthy of survey but not of special architectural or historic interest. It was recorded as demolished by October 2003.