Belfast Education and Library Board, 40-62 Academy Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT1 2LS

Former warehouse, now offices, built 1899–1901 to designs by Samuel Stevenson, a chiefly industrial and commercial architect with offices in Royal Avenue, Belfast. The building occupies a full city block on the northwest side of Academy Street, bounded by Great Patrick Street to the north, Curtis Street to the south, and Coar's Lane to the west. It is a good example of the major commercial warehousing that once characterised this part of Belfast and represents the work of a noteworthy local architect.

The building is three storeys of red brick, of impressive scale, with a strong articulation of the roofscape and a well-judged rhythm of solid and void. The brick is laid in English garden wall bond with a black brick plinth. Shallow brick piers rise the full height of the building. The parapet features open arched balustrades and a moulded brick cornice with dentilled machicolations, with ball-flower decoration beneath. A moulded brick string runs over the ground and first floor window arches; a moulded stone and brick string with ball-flower decoration runs at first floor sill level.

The roofscape is varied. The pavilion tower roofs are covered in Westmoreland slates and surmounted by lead-roofed timber lanterns with wrought iron finials. Between the towers the roof is pitched natural slate with two hipped dormers, also with wrought iron finials. The remaining roof area is flat, covered by aggregate-faced insulation slabs. Rainwater goods are square-section uPVC.

The main southeast elevation faces Academy Street and is symmetrical, twenty-three windows wide. At its centre, the entrance sits beneath a canted oriel window and a sandstone Dutch gable. The oriel has a curved copper roof and a dentilled cornice, carried on a stone corbel, with replacement glazing. The Dutch gable is framed by octagonal piers with foliate carved corbels, features arched machicolations and moulded strings, and carries the date '1901' beneath a shell motif in the pediment. The entrance doorway is framed by polished red granite columns with Ionic capitals on polished grey granite plinths, beneath a blocked moulded sandstone archivolt; the keystone bears a carved monogram of the original occupants, currently obscured by a modern sign. Flanking the central entrance are bays of three windows with a secondary door and one window at ground floor level. Adjacent to these are bays of two windows with a tower above and vehicular access doors at ground floor, and towards each corner are three bays of two windows each to the upper floors, with one window at ground level.

Window treatment varies by floor. Attic windows have round arches with bullnosed surrounds, exaggerated sandstone keystones, and a connecting moulded brick string. Second floor windows are round-arched with bullnosed surrounds and sandstone sills. First floor windows have segmental arches with a moulded brick string over, bullnosed surrounds, and moulded brick string sills. Ground floor windows have segmental arches with connecting brick strings over, stepped bullnosed surrounds, exaggerated sandstone keystones, and splayed grey granite sills. Octagonal corner tower turrets feature sandstone corbels and copings. Secondary doorways are segmental-arched, matching the window openings. All windows are now uPVC; the entrance door is replacement plate glass and the secondary doors are replacement timber.

The southwest side elevation is eighteen windows wide, matching the detailing of the main elevation; each bay has two windows to the upper floors and one to the ground floor, with a doorway at the second opening from the right on the ground floor. The rear northwest elevation has three brick piers to each corner and is otherwise flat brick. Second floor windows here have flat lintels; first and ground floor windows are segmental-arched, with the ground floor openings infilled with concrete lintels. A light well is painted brick, with four modern infill towers of corrugated metal sheeting. The northeast side elevation is eighteen windows wide in bays matching the southwest elevation. On the second floor, four arched windows appear to the south with the remainder square-headed; first floor windows match the southwest elevation; ground floor windows match the northwest elevation, except for a segmental-arched window on the south corner.

The building was constructed at a contract price of £15,000 as offices and warehouses for the distillers Kirker, Greer and Company, as reported in the Irish Builder of 15 April 1900. Mosaic work and wood block flooring were carried out by Ebner of London. The building first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–2. Kirker Greer had originated as Kirker and Company, soda water manufacturers, at number 24 Academy Street in 1870. By 1880 the firm had become Kirker Greer and Company, distillers and wine and spirit merchants, trading from numbers 30–34. Their best-known product was 'The Shamrock Whisky'. By the time of the Belfast Revaluation of 1900, the company owned almost all of the property on the west side of Academy Street from number 14 to number 62.

In 1917 the premises were taken over by Brown, Cobbett and Company Limited, distillers and blenders. During the Second World War the building served as the Air Raid Precautions headquarters for Belfast, and a reinforced concrete bomb shelter was constructed within the building; this was subsequently used as the boiler room. Kirker Greer went into liquidation in 1946. In 1947 the building passed to the Belfast Education Authority for use as the central clinic for its school health services, and by 1960 several departments — including architects and further education — had relocated there. The Belfast Education Authority became the Belfast Education and Library Board in 1973. In May 1985 the Board vacated the building due to health and safety concerns. A £1.3 million refurbishment followed, designed by Ferguson and McIlveen and carried out by contractors Gilbert Ash NI Limited. During this work the building was stripped internally of all non-load-bearing elements, including doors, windows, and roof coverings. Although this refurbishment was extensive, significant historic detail and fabric survive, particularly in the exterior brickwork, stonework, and decorative mouldings. The building continues in use as offices for the Belfast Education and Library Board.

The building sits within a conservation area. It faces 81–87 Academy Street to the east. To the south, an open car park allows a clear view of St Anne's Cathedral. Adjacent on Curtis Street, across the narrow Coar's Lane, is the Calvary Christian Centre, and on the other side of Curtis Street is the modern University of Ulster campus.