Convent Of St Joseph

The Convent of St Joseph is a late 18th-century domestic building that was significantly altered and extended around 1845 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. The convent is constructed of red brick with stone dressings and has tiled roofs, with banded details and crested verge parapets to the parts designed by Pugin. The building comprises three distinct sections, arranged in a U-shape around an inner courtyard, and facing onto Bank Street and a churchyard. The west side of the street frontage features the original 18th-century building, which is three storeys high and has two windows. It has glazing bar sashes with painted wedge-shaped heads, and the top floor includes half-dormer gablets over large-pane sashes. Attached to the east and facing the church and street is a single-storey range designed by Pugin; this building is largely blind to Bank Street, with a stone-dressed Tudor arch doorway on the right. The projecting gabled east return has a labelled pointed two-light window extending into a long, blind range alongside the churchyard. Facing into the courtyard is a two-storey, four-window range also by Pugin, linked to the street frontage by a tall, square, steeply-gabled tower.