St Comgall's Primary School, Divis Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT12 4AQ

St Comgall's Primary School

St Comgall's Primary School is a largely two-storey institutional neo-Georgian school building completed in 1932, designed by R.S. Wilshere. The building is positioned on a rise south of Divis Street, approximately one kilometre west of Belfast city centre. It is constructed of rustic brick and render with Portland stone dressings, arranged around a quadrangle plan.

The North Elevation

The north front is symmetrical and is the principal façade. At its centre is a broad hipped roof bay containing a double-volume assembly hall. This central section features a semicircular arch-headed Georgian-paned window with Portland stone surround, keystone and apron panel. Above this is a stone panel with raised lettering reading "St Comgall's P.E. Schools 1932", set within a parapet with moulded stone cornice and blocking course. Flanking the window are two large panels, each bounded by broad brick pilasters, containing two Georgian-paned windows apiece with stone sills. Both bays display a broad stone course above window level with frieze and cornice.

On either side of the central bay are recessed bays, each with a ground-floor door opening (now with roller shutter) and a first-floor roundel window with Georgian panes and stone surround. At the east and west ends of the north elevation are projecting square pavilions with pyramidal roofs. Each pavilion has a ground-floor mullioned and transomed Georgian-paned window with stone surround, sill course and triangular pediment supported on console brackets. The first floor of each pavilion contains a broad casement window with Georgian panes resting on a plain stone sill course, finished in smooth panelled render. The outer faces of the pavilions feature similar Georgian-paned windows to the ground floor with stone surrounds, and two evenly spaced Georgian-paned casement windows to the first floor. The pyramidal roofs of the pavilions are square-based with approximately 500 millimetre overhangs and panelled soffits.

The West Elevation

The west elevation comprises a single broad hipped roof bay containing classrooms, with three shallow recessed bays flanked by plain brick pilasters. Each bay contains large windows to both ground and first floors. These windows consist of three multi-paned mullioned and transomed lights separated by rendered mullions, with the central light being the largest. Above the ground-floor windows is a three-part rendered panel, and below them runs a stone string course. Immediately adjacent are smaller flat-roofed stairwell towers. The northern tower has a tall multi-pane upper-level window with stone surround and a smaller ground-level window (now boarded up), with another ground-level window to the north face (partly boarded up). The southern tower mirrors this arrangement in handed fashion.

The South Elevation

The south elevation is a handed version of the north elevation. At its centre is a tall plain panel rising above the eaves to form a parapet. Within this panel is a slightly recessed bay containing a door opening (door now removed) beneath a semicircular arched multi-pane window, flanked on either side by pairs of multi-paned windows set within slightly recessed panels.

The East Elevation

The east elevation is identical in composition to the west elevation but handed, comprising a long six-bay hipped roof block with a semi-basement level. The bays repeat the fenestration pattern of the north and south elevations, with windows to each floor containing two large lights. The semi-basement level has two relatively large windows per bay, all now boarded up.

The Courtyard

The interior courtyard walls are finished in plain painted render. The north side (south-facing side of the building) contains the double-volume assembly hall. The remaining three sides (north, east and west) contain two storeys with open arched colonnades to the ground floor and casement windows to the first floor.

The east and west façades of the courtyard are identical but handed. To the ground floor are colonnades of six semicircular-headed open arches. The 2nd and 5th arches extend to ground level to permit pedestrian access to the courtyard, while the remainder have low stall risers. A tall narrow window appears to the far left. The first floor contains six evenly spaced casement windows, one of which (to the left on the west façade) is blocked.

The north courtyard façade contains a colonnade of six arches at ground level, with the 2nd and 5th giving access to the courtyard centre. The first floor has six evenly spaced openings: the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th are casement windows, while the 2nd and 5th are door openings with plain margin windows. Immediately below these doors are small decorative wrought-iron balconies supported on cantilever brackets.

The east, west and north courtyard façades are attached to flat-roofed projections built into the inner sides of the main hipped-roof classroom blocks, each containing upper-floor corridors. Above the flat roofs, the inner façades of the hipped-roof blocks are exposed in brick and contain squat clerestory windows, all now boarded up.

Materials and Construction

The outer wall surfaces are predominantly finished in well-fired rustic facing brick, while inner walls are plain rendered. Roofs to the assembly hall and classroom blocks are hipped and covered with natural slate. The pavilion roofs are pyramidal and also covered with natural slate. All other roofs are flat. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

Setting and Ancillary Features

Decorative iron railings front the school to the road side. These may have belonged to the Belfast Model School which previously occupied this site between 1855 and 1922, though they are not the original 1850s railings (photographs of 1864 show a slightly different design).

To the south is a tarmaced playground. To the west and east are free-standing former toilet blocks with hipped roofs. The window openings facing the playground are now bricked up. The eastern block is now converted for use as a laundry, while the western block is now used as a drop-in centre.

Character and Style

The courtyard area has a distinctive central European character, as if based on a school or institution in Austria or southern Germany.