St Joseph's (Maintained) College, 518 Ravenhill Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT6 0BY

St Joseph's (Maintained) College is a detached two-storey redbrick school built around 1959. It is situated on the east side of Ravenhill Road in Belfast, set back from the road within its own extensive grounds shared with Equinas Grammar School to the rear.

The building is quadrangular in plan, facing west with a central courtyard. The front west range has a flat bitumen or felt-lined roof, while the remaining three ranges have hipped terracotta tiled roofs with terracotta ridge tiles. Cast-iron rainwater goods are used throughout, including box hoppers and square-profile downpipes with decorative brackets. The walling is redbrick laid in stretcher bond with a projecting plinth course built in pre-cast rock-faced concrete block. Window openings are square-headed throughout, mostly retaining original multi-pane steel casement windows with concrete sills and projecting concrete surrounds.

The west range comprises a central double-height assembly hall with a two-storey bowed entrance projection to the south and a two-storey secondary entrance bay to the north. To the north of the secondary entrance bay is an advanced double-height gym hall. The bowed principal entrance bay is clad in green tiles with a series of black tiled double-height piers rising to a semi-circular concrete overhang. An open portico at ground floor level has a terrazzo floor and three recessed square-headed door openings with double-leaf timber glazed doors and brass handles. The first floor has replacement nine-pane uPVC windows. The assembly hall displays an asymmetrical arrangement of five double-height window openings with steel windows set within a concrete frame, each flanked by pre-cast rock-faced concrete piers. The north end is a blank brick wall with three blind concrete oculi. The secondary entrance bay is three windows wide and recessed from the remainder of the elevation, with cement render walling to the recessed ground floor. It has a central recessed entrance with terrazzo floor, double-leaf timber glazed doors and surround, opening onto four concrete steps and flanked by a pair of fluted concrete columns. The gym features five double-height steel windows to both south and north elevations, as per the assembly hall, and a blank brick west elevation abutted by a lower projection with three decorative square concrete panels. An entrance at the east end of the north elevation has a concrete hood supported on painted projecting walls, housing double-leaf timber part-glazed doors. A single-storey flat-roofed section abuts the north end of the west range, incorporating a further entrance. The east rear elevation is two-storeys with an additional single-storey section containing a central entrance bay with concrete canopy and two square-headed door openings with double-leaf part-glazed hardwood doors opening into the central courtyard.

The north range comprises a two-storey redbrick wing with paired window openings to each floor set in a concrete frame divided by pre-cast rock-faced concrete block piers. The south elevation is abutted by an aluminium-framed greenhouse facing the courtyard. The east range projects beyond the south range and comprises a pair of two-storey redbrick blocks similar to the north range, with a central gable-fronted breakfront extension added around 1990. The west elevation of the east range is abutted by a two-storey flat-roofed section completely glazed to the ground floor with replacement uPVC windows and a series of diminutive openings to the first floor, also with replacement uPVC windows, all opening onto the central courtyard. To the southeast corner is a later redbrick lift tower with pyramidal tiled roof. The south range follows similar detailing to the east and north ranges and is abutted to the west end by a flat-roofed two-storey block connected to the single-storey over basement section which in turn abuts the principal front entrance bay.

The school complex employs many modernist architectural devices and details. However, it has been substantially altered with inappropriate modern extensions and does not meet the criteria for listing.

The grounds include extensive bitumen parking and playing areas to the front. To the south, the property is enclosed to the road by trees and wire fencing. A short bitumen avenue continues along the south elevation to the rear, where there are several redbrick single-storey later buildings and a two-storey prefabricated block.