The Former St. Malachy'S School, 21 Oxford St., Belfast

The Former St. Malachy's Christian Brothers' School, 21 Oxford Street, Belfast

This small but architecturally distinctive two-storey Gothic schoolhouse on Oxford Street, Belfast, was built in 1874 to designs by Alexander MacAlister (c. 1821–1897), a Belfast-based Roman Catholic architect described by the Dictionary of Irish Architects, alongside Timothy Hevey, as one of the leading Catholic architects of Victorian Belfast. The building was founded through a private bequest by a Mrs. Margaret Magill, who wished to provide a school specifically for the education of the children of the Bargees of Belfast — that is, the children of the sailors and dockworkers employed along the quays of Belfast's port. It sits in close proximity to the River Lagan, a location directly reflecting its original purpose. Construction cost £2,000 and the school first opened on 1st October 1874.

The building is a diminutive, nearly symmetrical, gabled ashlar sandstone schoolhouse of two storeys, abutted by buildings on either side. The roof is pitched natural slate with cast iron rainwater goods. The walling is ashlar sandstone with distinctive pink banding, employing polychrome decoration throughout in alternating pink and cream sandstone. The rear wall is of red brick, though only partial remains survive and the building has been extended beyond it.

The principal gable, in cream sandstone with pink banding, features a small rose window with a pierced quatrefoil above it, finished with fine banding over. The doorcase is set slightly forward to one side, making the façade almost but not quite symmetrical. It is embraced by Venetian capitals, with incised lettering recording the building as a Christian Brothers School. The date of founding, 1874, appears on a shield above the door. At ground floor level there are three pointed arched windows arranged in an arcade, and at first floor level four cusped arched windows. The present windows are replacement timber units, Gothic arched and cusped to the first floor, and are glazed in four panes each. MacAlister's use of the Venetian Gothic style here echoes its employment in other mercantile structures in the city and connects the building to Belfast's commercial and port history.

To the left the building is abutted by a modern structure, and to the right by a three-storey red brick building. The front railings are included within the extent of the listing.

MacAlister was also the architect of the shopfront for the nearby Tedford's Chandlers at No. 5 Donegall Quay, and the Convent of Mercy, Sussex Place, built in 1879–80. The latter was constructed beside St. Malachy's Girls' School, designed by Timothy Hevey, MacAlister's principal contemporary, which was a sister organisation to this boys' school on Oxford Street.

St. Malachy's was unique among the Christian Brothers' schools in Belfast in that it was the only one not built on parochial property, owing to Mrs. Magill's private bequest. Upon completion it was valued at £50 in the Annual Revisions. In 1900 the Belfast Revaluation slightly increased the assessed value to £55, and noted that the school was administered by the Reverend J. P. Ryan, the superior cleric of the Christian Brothers at the site, who acted as principal. The value remained unchanged through the Annual Revisions until they were cancelled in 1930. In the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the value was increased to £120, though as a school the building remained free from taxation. The building survived the bombardment of the docks during the Belfast Blitz in 1941. In the second general revaluation, which commenced in 1956, the value of the school stood at £208 by the end of that process in 1972.

Although the school had originally opened primarily to educate the children of dock workers, it came over time to expand its reach, drawing pupils from other parts of the city and providing both primary and secondary education outside the National School System. In the years following the Second World War the school came under increasing pressure to close, owing to its isolation from Belfast's residential areas and the limited accommodation offered by the small building. Admissions to the Oxford Street school ceased in 1966 and the doors finally closed in 1972 when the last pupils completed their secondary education.

After the Christian Brothers vacated the building it was initially occupied by a clothing firm and converted into a warehouse. The school was listed in 1974 while still in use as a store. In 1980 the building underwent a major renovation in which the interior was stripped out and converted into commercial space, with the result that the original interior has been completely removed and replaced. The building is currently in use as office space. Despite these internal losses, the Victorian façade has retained its Gothic character and has been sympathetically maintained. The building's setting has been considerably degraded and much of its original context has been lost, though the buildings to the north are roughly similar in date. The school's small scale and lively, distinctive façade nonetheless make it an important landmark for its area. Critics have responded warmly to the building over the years: C. E. B. Brett, writing in 1985, described it as a "tiny and delightful sample of Victorian Gothic," while Patton observed that the Victorians associated particular architectural styles with different building types and that a church school was "inevitably Gothic." The building is of significance both architecturally and historically, representing the development of education and social responsibility in the late Victorian era.