The Bar Convent And Railings Attached To Front

The Bar Convent and Railings Attached to Front

This convent and school of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now functioning as a convent and museum, represents a substantial complex built in phases from the 18th century onwards.

The site was developed over several decades. The entrance range facing Blossom Street was built in 1786-9 by Thomas Atkinson, fronting earlier buildings which include a Chapel block of 1766-9 that remains relatively unaltered. An outer range was added to the north side of the court in 1790-3. In 1834-5 the architects JB and W Atkinson added an inner range on the north side of the court and another range north of the Chapel block. In 1844-6 GT Andrews altered the Chapel block and added a Schoolroom block on the corner of Nunnery Lane. The court itself was roofed around 1865, with further alterations made later in the 19th century. During the Second World War parts of the building suffered damage, and around 1985 alterations were undertaken during conversion for museum use.

The entrance range is constructed of red-brown brick in Flemish bond with window arches of orange brick, whilst the plinth, dressings and cornice are of painted stone. The 1834 range is of buff brick in Flemish bond with timber bracketed eaves guttering. The Schoolroom block is of orange-brown brick, with the Blossom Street front in Flemish bond and the Nunnery Lane front in English garden-wall bond; window arches are orange brick and the plinth and giant order with entablature on the Blossom Street front are ashlar. All roofs are hipped and slated with brick stacks, except for the lead roof to the clock tower and glass roof to the court. A stone gable cross crowns the building.

The entrance range consists of three storeys and an attic, presented as a seven-bay front. The three central bays are pedimented and break forward slightly. The ground and first floors in the centre are treated as a centrepiece set within a two-storey round-arched recess. Moulded stone steps lead up to a six-panel door in a rusticated surround with a plain fanlight behind a decorative iron grille. A detached doorcase comprises paired fluted Doric columns supporting a mutule cornice and pediment. Above the door is a 12-pane sash window in a shouldered surround with a balustrade below and a moulded cornice above. All other windows on the ground, first and second floors are 12-pane sashes; those on the second floor are squatter in proportion. Windows on the ground and first floors have a sill band; on the second floor they have painted stone sills. All windows have flat arches of rubbed brick. Broad raised bands articulate the first floor and attic. A moulded cornice and pediment with modillions crown the composition; the pediment bears a clock face in its tympanum. The plain attic is lit by six squat three-pane windows. Square-section railings braced to the ground floor and forming gates across the porch have tapered finials.

The rear elevation comprises a three-storey, three-bay pent-roofed extension. A square clock tower rises at the centre above the roof, crowned with an ogee-roofed open cupola of timber columns.

The Schoolroom block presents a two-storey, three-bay front articulated by attached giant order pilasters rising from a high podium and carrying a pedimented entablature. Windows are 12-pane sashes on both floors, squatter on the first floor. On the ground floor a moulded sill band forms the coping to the podium; on the first floor sills extend the full width of each bay. All windows have flat arches of rubbed brick. The left return rises three storeys with scattered fenestration. A chamfered stone plinth and entablature are returned from the Blossom Street front. A curved corner bay contains an inserted round-arched doorway with moulded imposts beneath a keyed hoodmould and a curved door of six moulded panels. Further left, two four-panel doors approached by steps break the plinth. Windows are sashes—two of 12 panes, one of 16 panes and one of four panes—all with stone sills; all except the four-pane window have segmental brick arches.

The Chapel block, viewed from the garden, displays two storeys and attics across a five-bay front, with the right end masked by extensions housing the Lady Chapel and a staircase. The ground floor has two square-headed windows, each containing four round-headed 'Gothick' lights. The first floor contains three inserted lunette windows with central pivoting lights. A four-course raised brick band marks the first floor. The Lady Chapel extension has one round-arched small-pane light. Attic windows comprise two box dormers and one flat skylight.

Interior

The entrance range's ground floor contains a Portress' Room to the left with a sleeping alcove at the rear. The Great Parlour to the right retains its original marble fireplace flanked by round-headed alcoves.

The Schoolroom block's main rooms on both floors have an apsidal end. The ground floor room has a divided ceiling formed by cased corniced beams with a gaslight connection in a circular surround in each ceiling bay.

The court features a decorative tiled floor and a glazed roof carried on iron trusses supported on cast-iron columns. A clock by Henry Hindley, made before 1770, was connected around 1790 to the pediment clock on the Blossom Street front.

The Chapel block is approached from the ground floor by a stone staircase with square-section iron balusters and a moulded handrail wreathed at the foot, rising to the chapel on the first floor. The chapel comprises a domed sanctuary, north and south transepts and a three-bay nave. The sanctuary is a domed Ionic rotunda composed of eight detached fluted columns supporting an entablature with a frieze enriched with vine leaf festoons, urns and posies. The dome is divided by eight ribs into bays, each enclosing a garland of fruit and foliage of varying kinds, and is surmounted by a painted glass lantern. The transepts lead from the rotunda through openings flanked by panelled pilasters with foliate corbels at the head. Beneath the north transept is a square cavity said to be a Priest's hole. The south transept opens into the Lady Chapel, which is lit by a small dome and cupola. The nave contains round-headed recesses in the north and south walls; those to the south are glazed as lunettes. At the west end an organ gallery with a wrought-iron balustrade is carried on four round arches springing from slender columns with foliate capitals and recessed spandrels. 'Gothick' panelled double doors occupy the west end. The ceiling is coved above a bold cornice returned from the organ gallery.

Fittings include an altar of 1969 re-using scrolled legs with winged cherub heads and a pelican in piety from an 18th-century original, a 20th-century reredos surmounted by 18th-century carved figures of Saints Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory supporting a Spanish ivory crucifix.