Westcourt Centre, Former St Mary's Christian Brothers School, 8-30 Barrack Street, Belfast, County Antrim, BT12 4AH

Westcourt Centre, formerly St Mary's Christian Brothers School, is a detached symmetrical multi-bay two-storey red brick building built around 1929 to the designs of architect Francis McArdle. Located on the south side of Divis Street in Belfast, it now serves community educational purposes.

The building is U-shaped on plan, facing northwest, with a pair of pedimented breakfronts at either end, an additional block to the south, and a two-storey central stair wing to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof features roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and lead valleys. A single red brick chimneystack rises from the north wing.

The external brickwork is machine-made red brick laid in Flemish bond with a projecting red brick plinth course having chamfered concrete trim. A concrete frieze runs between floors with further painted concrete detailing below the eaves. The ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering sits on a moulded concrete eaves cornice, with cast-iron box hoppers and square downpipes.

Window openings on the first floor are square-headed; those on the ground floor are segmental-headed with diamond-faced keystones and lateral keystones. Windows throughout have concrete sills and replacement 6/6 timber sash windows with horns. The symmetrical front elevation is fifteen windows wide with a central entrance flanked by three-window-wide pedimented breakfronts to either end.

A single-bay two-storey flat-roofed red brick block was added to the south end around 1940.

The pedimented breakfronts feature full pediments formed in moulded concrete, each surmounted by a concrete cross on a stepped base. A lunette opening within each pediment has keystones and a red brick apron with decorative terracotta stepped trim. The first-floor windows to the breakfronts have red brick aprons. The central window displays a Portland limestone apron with a decoratively carved crest framing a Celtic cross and ribbon banner bearing Latin and Irish lettering.

The entrance is a tripartite breakfront with a deeply coved and quoined round-headed door opening, diamond-faced keystone, replacement double-leaf timber panelled doors, timber spoked fanlight, and internal glazed doors. Slender round-headed windows to either side have block-and-start concrete surrounds with horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows. Above, a painted concrete frieze and parapet features a central panelled parapet wall flanked by squat panelled piers bearing raised lettering reading "Christian Brothers / Secondary School". Three concrete steps lead from the door to the front bitumen-paved area.

The north elevation is nine windows wide, detailed as per the front elevation. The rear elevation features a pair of gable-ended projections with a central flat-roofed two-storey red brick stair wing. The courtyard elevations are fronted by a cantilevered concrete terrace, bitumen-coated with wrought-iron railings and a pair of steel fire escapes. Gauged brick segmental-headed window openings appear on the ground floor, with square-headed openings on the first floor; some original 6/6 timber sash windows remain. Both floors have tall door openings with vertically-sheeted timber doors, sidelights, and multi-pane overlights.

The south elevation is nine windows wide, detailed as per the front elevation.

The site lies south of Divis Street, enclosed to the road by wrought-iron railings set on a low red brick and concrete plinth wall with matching gates. The bitumen-paved site includes a detached single-storey block to the north and a range of single-storey rendered buildings to the rear.