St. Mary’s High School, Chapel Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2DT

St. Mary’s High School is a large school building constructed between 1940 and 1959 in an international modern style, with later additions in the 1970s. Designed by Corr and McCormick, the school is of interest as an example of the new approach to school design that emerged in the post-war period, moving away from earlier conventions of scale, layout, and treatment. Similar schools were built in Strabane and Londonderry.

The main block is four storeys high and features pebble-dashed walls with inset timber panels below the windows at each gable. Large, rectangular metal-framed windows are set along the façade and rear. On the extreme right, three smaller square windows are located on the second and third floors, above where the building abuts the right block. Four front doors are recessed within a timber-lined opening and are fitted with glazed side lights and transom lights. Orange mosaic tiles decorate a concrete pillar within the office to the left of the front doors, with similar green mosaic tiles visible at ground floor level further to the left of the main block.

The right block, which abuts the front right corner of the main block, is two storeys high, with timber panels below the windows on the façade and right gable. Again, three square windows are visible on each floor on the right end of the façade, with the walls pebble-dashed. A single-storey plant building with a square, pebble-dashed chimney abuts the right gable. A later rear right block is joined to the right block by a concrete and glass staircase block with a stepped flat roof that rises up the hill to a single-storey, pebble-dashed block. The left block is a three-storey, pebble-dashed structure, its rear abutting the left corner of the main block's façade. A single-storey circulation corridor with a flat roof and glazed sides runs along the rear of the left block, incorporating a central outdoor shrub bed. The assembly hall is a two-storey structure set at right angles to the rear of the main block. Other blocks on the site share a similar construction and detailing.

The school is set within lawns, with granite rubble retaining walls to the front. A high palisade fence surrounds the perimeter.