St Mary's Church of Ireland School, 236-238 Crumlin Road, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT14 7GL

St Mary's Church of Ireland School is a double-height former school building on the south side of Crumlin Road, Belfast, built between 1882 and 1884 to designs by the Belfast architect William Henry Lynn. It now functions partly as a doctor's surgery and partly as church halls and meeting rooms, though its original plan form remains clearly legible. The building has group value with the adjacent St Mary's Parish Church, which stands directly to the north, and the listing extends to include the boundary walls, gates and railings.

The building is rectangular in plan, aligned east to west, with gabled projecting bays at the centre and at the east and west ends of the north elevation, and at the east and west ends of the south elevation. It is distinctly different in style from other national schools of its period, and much of its original architectural fabric survives, including the fenestration and decorative detailing.

The roofs are pitched and covered in natural slate, with blue-black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys, stone verges carried on corbelled kneeler stones, and cast-iron ogee rainwater goods. The chimneys are coursed tooled sandstone with bellcast ashlar copings and clay pots.

The external walls are polychromatic coursed tooled sandstone with a projecting plinth course finished with a chamfered ashlar capping. The main body of the walling is white tooled sandstone banded by three tooled red sandstone stringcourses. Window openings are square-headed with stepped ashlar jambs and contain timber casement windows protected externally by metal screens; those in the projecting bays have tooled polychromatic relieving arches above them. Doors are square-headed, vertically sheeted timber set within chamfered stepped ashlar surrounds with tooled relieving arches over. To deter vandalism, aluminium checker plate has been fixed to the external face of the doors using traditional-style forged hinges.

The principal north elevation is dominated by a central gabled projection with paired chimneystacks above. This projection contains an entrance door with a transom light over on the left, a mid-level window to the right, a larger window at first-floor level in the centre, and a glazed oculus at the apex. The entrance — giving access to the church hall, kitchen and meeting rooms — is reached by a flagged ramp and steps with a stone plinth wall and concrete coping supporting a painted mild steel handrail. The side cheeks of the central projection are blank. Flanking this central bay on either side is a series of four windows. The gabled projection at the left contains paired windows on its north gable surmounted by a glazed oculus; its side cheeks are blank. The gabled projection at the right extends further forward than the left and contains two windows on its north gable surmounted by a blank oculus, with a gable chimneystack; its left cheek is abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension, and the right cheek contains two windows. The lean-to extension is detailed to match the main building and has a lean-to natural slate roof.

The east elevation contains an entrance door on the left, a single diminished window on the right, and a single window to the north. This entrance — accessing the doctor's surgery — is reached by a flagged ramp with a stone plinth wall, concrete coping, and painted mild steel handrail. The east gabled elevation contains paired windows at the centre with a glazed oculus at the apex and an acroter. An entrance door on the left is set within a rendered ruled-and-lined surround. A single-storey-with-basement extension of similar detailing abuts the south-east corner. The east gabled elevation projects beyond the main east elevation and contains paired diminished windows at centre with a glazed oculus above; an entrance door on the right (north) cheek is accessed by stone steps with a half-landing connecting to the pavement on Silvio Street. The left (south) cheek adjoins a now-derelict two-storey-with-attic red brick house, formerly the rectory.

The south elevation faces into an enclosed yard accessible only through the building. It has a central wall-head gable with paired windows at first- and second-floor level, surmounted by a blind oculus at the apex. To the right, a series of five windows is interrupted by entrance doors — each with a diminished window above — at the first and fourth openings from the left. These doors are reached by tooled stone steps with ashlar copings (the steps on the left are entirely of concrete construction; those on the right are raised on cased concrete and have a painted mild steel handrail). The windows are flanked on the left by a wall-head chimneystack. A single-storey-with-basement extension abuts on the left; its left cheek contains a replacement door at basement level and two windows at first-floor level, the left of which occupies a former door opening that has been partially blocked. The south gable adjoins the same derelict two-storey-with-attic red brick house, which also encloses the east side of the yard. The left section of the main south elevation is abutted by a single-storey engineering brick extension adjoining the left gabled projection. The left gabled projection itself is blank with a partially rendered facade, suggesting that a formerly attached building has since been removed. The right cheek of this projection was not visible at the time of survey; the left cheek contains four windows.

The west gabled elevation projects slightly forward from the adjoining projecting bays described above. It contains four windows surmounted by a blank oculus and a gable chimneystack.

The building is sited within the walled grounds of St Mary's Parish Church, to the south of Crumlin Road, surrounded on adjacent streets by terraced housing. Car parking between the church and the former school is accessed at east and west through painted cast-iron gates supported on roughly coursed basalt rubble piers with sandstone pyramidal caps. The east stone steps are enclosed by cast-iron gates and roughly coursed basalt walling.

Historically, the school was built on land to the rear of St Mary's Church, which had taken on pastoral and educational duties during the 19th century. Under the National Schools system established in 1832, children were commonly taught in schools of their own denomination, and the building was listed in the 1887 Belfast Street Directory as St Mary's National Schools, with a Mr Hugh Jennings as Principal. A valuation of the schools and yard from 1882 to 1896 placed the annual value at £120, with Elizabeth Logan noted as lessor; the estimated cost of construction as recorded in 1900 was £3,000. At that time the building comprised five rooms, with additional structures to the rear — including a sexton's house and yard — combined in the valuation.

In 1903–04 the architect Samuel P. Close enlarged the western side of the building in a style similar to Lynn's original, as recorded by architectural historian Paul Larmour. These additions are visible on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1920–31. Following the Education Act of 1923, Public Elementary Schools were established as a non-denominational system, reducing the Church's influence over education. Street Directories indicate that St Mary's made the transfer from National School to Public Elementary School during the 1930s, and following post-war educational reforms became St Mary's Primary Schools in 1949. By 1957, General Revaluation records show the building was in use by St Mary's Church, and although still listed as a school, it appears to have become unviable for educational purposes following the reforms of the 1950s. It lay vacant in the mid-1960s before becoming the Parochial Hall of St Mary's Church in 1967, a use it retained until the end of the 20th century. The building was subsequently refurbished, with the western half converted to a doctor's surgery and the eastern part to church halls.