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

St Comgall's Primary School is a well-proportioned, largely two-storey school of 1932, designed by R.S. Wilshere and opened in December 1933. It is built in the institutional neo-early-Georgian style typical of the period, arranged around a quadrangle, and sits on a rise to the south of Divis Street, approximately one kilometre west of Belfast city centre at Castle Junction. The external walls are finished in well-fired, rustic facing brick with render and what appear to be Portland stone dressings. The roofs to the assembly hall and classroom blocks are hipped and covered in natural slate; the pavilion roofs are pyramidal, also in natural slate. All other roofs are flat. Cast iron rainwater goods are used throughout.

The north front faces Divis Street and is symmetrical in composition. At its centre is a broad hipped-roof bay housing a double-volume assembly hall. To either side of this are flat-roofed recessed bays, each containing a two-storey entrance porch, which link to projecting square pavilions with four-sided pyramidal pitched roofs. To the far east and west, set well back, are the hipped-roof ends of the classroom blocks. The centrepiece of the north elevation is a semicircular arch-headed, Georgian-paned window with what appears to be Portland or reconstituted stone surround, keystone, and apron panel. Directly above this is a stone panel with raised lettering reading "St Comgall's P[ublic] E[lementary] Schools 1932", set partly within a parapet with moulded stone cornice and blocking course. To the left and right of this window are two large bays, each flanked by broad brick pilasters and containing two Georgian-paned windows with stone sills; both bays have a broad stone course above window level with frieze and cornice. The recessed bays to either side have a door opening at ground floor level (now fitted with roller shutters) and a small roundel with Georgian panes and stone surround at first floor level.

The projecting square pavilions at the east and west ends of the north elevation each have, at ground floor level, a centred, mullioned and transomed Georgian-paned window with stone surround, sill course, and a triangular pediment supported on console brackets. At first floor level is a broad window with a Georgian-paned casement frame resting on a plain stone sill course, with the first floor finished in smooth panelled render. The outer east and west faces of each pavilion have a mullioned and transomed Georgian-paned window with stone surround at ground floor and two evenly spaced Georgian-paned casement windows at first floor. Each pyramidal pavilion roof has an overhang of approximately 500mm with a panelled soffit.

The west elevation, to the left of the west pavilion, comprises a single broad block containing classrooms beneath an overhanging hipped roof. Within this block there are three shallow recessed bays, each flanked by a plain brick pilaster. Each bay contains a large window at both ground and first floor levels, each window comprising three multi-paned mullioned and transomed lights separated by rendered mullions, with the central light being the largest. Above each ground floor window is a three-part rendered panel, and below the ground floor windows runs a stone string course. Immediately to the left and right of this large hipped-roof bay, and set further back, are smaller flat-roofed stairwell towers. The west face of the north tower has a tall multi-paned upper-level window with stone surround and a much smaller window at ground level, now boarded up; the north face has a further ground-level window, also partly boarded up. The south tower repeats this arrangement in mirror image.

The south elevation is a handed version of the north. The east elevation comprises a large single hipped-roof block similar to those to the north and south but longer, running to six bays, and with an additional semi-basement level. Each bay contains windows to each floor broadly similar in character to those on the north and south elevations, but with two large lights per window rather than three. At semi-basement level, each bay has two relatively large windows, all now boarded up.

Within the quadrangle, the courtyard walls are finished in plain painted render. The north side of the courtyard — that is, the south-facing wall of the assembly hall — rises to double-storey height. The remaining three courtyard faces each have two storeys, with an open arched colonnade at ground floor level and a series of casement windows at first floor level. The overall character of the courtyard has an intangible central European quality, suggestive of a school or civic institution in Austria or southern Germany.

To the south courtyard façade, the centre has a tall plain panel rising above eaves level to form a parapet, within which is a slightly recessed bay containing a door opening (the door now removed) set below a semicircular arched multi-paned window. To either side is a pair of multi-paned windows set within a slightly recessed panel. The east and west courtyard façades are identical but handed. Each has, at ground floor level, a colonnade of six semicircular-headed open arches; the second and fifth arches extend to the ground to allow pedestrian access into the courtyard, while the remainder have low stall risers. To the far left of each is a tall narrow window. At first floor there are six evenly spaced casement windows, one of which on the west façade is now blocked. The north courtyard façade similarly has a colonnade of six arches at ground floor level, with the second and fifth arches giving pedestrian access. At first floor there are six evenly spaced openings: the first, third, fourth, and sixth are casement windows, while the second and fifth are door openings with plain margin windows; below each door is a small decorative wrought iron balcony supported on cantilever brackets.

The east, west, and north courtyard façades belong to flat-roofed projections attached to the inner sides of the main hipped-roof classroom blocks, each containing upper-floor corridors. Above the flat roofs of these projections, a small section of the inner face of each hipped-roof block is exposed. These are brick-faced and contain squat clerestory windows, all now boarded up.

To the front of the school there are decorative iron railings. These may previously have belonged to the Belfast Model School, which occupied the site between 1855 and 1922, though they are not the original 1850s railings: a photograph of 1864 shows railings of a slightly different design. The school thus stands on the site of the old Belfast Model School, built in 1855 and destroyed by fire in May 1922.

To the south is a tarmacked playground. To the east and west are former freestanding toilet blocks, modest hipped-roof buildings whose playground-facing window openings have been bricked up. The east block has been converted for use as a laundry and the west block as a drop-in centre. The listing extends to the school building itself, the boundary wall, and the gates and railings.