St Joseph's RC parochial house, 38 Pilot Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT1 3AH

St Joseph's RC Parochial House

This unusual, tall Italianate red brick parochial house was built in 1879-80 at the rear of St Joseph's RC Church on Pilot Street, Belfast. It is a four-storey terrace building of mildly Italianate character, notable for its arch-headed windows, overhanging slated partly-hipped roof, and decorative lintels and string courses in red sandstone.

The asymmetric front elevation faces west. The left-hand third of the elevation is set back from the terrace line. Access to the main entrance at first-floor level is gained via a side flight of stone steps with a brick face and sandstone coping. The entrance itself consists of a panelled timber door with a plain semicircular fanlight, set beneath a large slated hood on curving timber brackets. To the immediate left of the entrance is a tall segmental-headed window. At ground floor level, to the left of the steps, sits a smaller flat-arch window with flush cill and bevelled lintel. A flat-arch doorway with bevelled lintel and panelled timber door beneath the steps provides access to the basement-like ground floor level.

The recessed left section has a tall semicircular-headed window to the second floor and a smaller flat-arch window to the third floor. The central and right-hand thirds of the ground floor contain four unevenly-spaced flat-arch windows with flush cills and bevelled lintels. The first floor has a pair of tall segmental-headed windows to the left and a larger segmental-headed window to the right. The second floor displays a pair of tall semicircular-headed windows to the left with a similar single window to the right. The third floor has two much smaller flat-arch windows. All windows feature red sandstone cills and lintels or arches, with blue brick over the arches of the first and second-floor openings. Red sandstone string courses run at cill level and arch-springing level on all floors except the ground floor. All windows are currently UPVC approximating one-over-one sash pattern. The north gable is blank except at third-floor level, as is the south elevation which is only fully exposed at second and third-floor levels. A narrow two-storey link stretches from the right-hand side to the church vestry to the east. The roof is partly hipped and partly gabled, slated with natural slates, with overhang and exposed rafter ends. There are three brick chimney stacks—one to the north gable and two larger stacks to the south and east respectively—all fitted with uniform clay pots. Cast iron rainwater goods are present.

The house was built contemporaneously with St Joseph's Church to designs by architect Timothy Hevey. Following the church's closure in February 2001, the house was vacated. The building represents an important example of late 19th-century Catholic institutional architecture in Belfast's dockside area, constructed in response to population growth and the need for worship facilities serving both the local Catholic community and visiting sailors.