Convent Of Our Lady Of Mercy

The Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, now partially an old people's home, was built in 1845-48, with later additions in the 19th century. Designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, it was altered in the late 20th century by Bartlett Gray of West Bridgford. Constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, the convent is in the Gothic Revival style.

The exterior features a plinth, a first-floor band, and coped gables. Most windows are glazing bar casements with stone mullions and surrounds. The building comprises four ranges arranged around a quadrangle and cloister. The east front has multiple casement windows and a pointed arched doorway. A projecting east gable contains the chapel, with stepped buttresses, a three-light pointed window, and a five-light arched window with decorated tracery above.

Inside the cloister, the south side features six chamfered pointed arches, with a late 20th-century glazed screen and door in the east arch. Above, are traceried, flat-headed six-light windows. The west side has six mullioned windows and six lancets. Lean-to corridors extend along the north and east sides, with mullioned and pointed arched windows. A stair tower at the northeast corner is topped with a pyramidal roof, and behind it is a bell turret with similar roofing.

The chapel interior is rendered with stencilled decoration, redecorated and reseated in 1990-91. It features a scissor braced roof with painted framed panels, a traceried panelled dado, and a stencilled frieze. The east end has a blind arcaded ashlar reredos with figures and a stained-glass window, while the west end includes pointed arched doors, an organ gallery, and original fittings such as a marble and alabaster altar by Hardman. A first floor cloister has a panelled wagon roof and ogee-headed niches. The stone winder stair has iron framing, and corridors include chamfered pointed arches and roll-moulded doorways.