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 located 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 run 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.

Square-headed window openings occur throughout the building, mostly retaining original multi-pane steel casement windows with concrete sills and projecting concrete surrounds. Some windows have been replaced with 9-pane uPVC units.

The west range comprises a central double-height assembly hall flanked by two-storey entrance bays. The principal bowed entrance bay to the south is clad in green tiles with black tiled double-height piers rising to a semi-circular concrete overhang. An open portico at ground level has a terrazzo floor and three recessed square-headed door openings with double-leaf timber glazed doors having brass handles. The assembly hall has 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 displays a blank brick wall with three blind concrete oculi. A secondary entrance bay to the north is recessed from the main elevation, with cement render walling to the ground floor. It features a central recessed entrance with terrazzo floor, double-leaf timber glazed doors, and is flanked by a pair of fluted concrete columns. An advanced double-height gym hall adjoins to the north, with five double-height steel windows to both south and north elevations, similar in treatment to the assembly hall, and a blank west elevation with three decorative square concrete panels. An entrance at the east end of the gym has a concrete hood supported on painted projecting walls and double-leaf timber part-glazed doors.

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. An aluminium-framed greenhouse abuts its south elevation to the courtyard.

The east range projects beyond the south range and comprises a pair of two-storey redbrick blocks, similar in detail to the north range, with a central gable-fronted breakfront extension added around 1990. The west elevation 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. A later redbrick lift tower with pyramidal tiled roof stands at the southeast corner.

The south range follows the same detailing as the east and north ranges. Its west end is abutted 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 east rear elevation is two-storeys with a 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. A single-storey flat-roofed section abuts the north end of the west range with a further entrance.

The grounds feature extensive bitumac parking and playing areas to the front and south, enclosed to the road by trees and wire fencing. A short bitumac avenue provides access continuing along the south elevation to the rear, where several redbrick single-storey later buildings and a two-storey prefabricated block are located.