The Convent

The Convent is part of a terrace of marine residences on Orwell Road in Dovercourt, built between 1851 and the late 1850s. Originally known as Banksea House, the complex now comprises mostly flats. Most units are now subdivided, though two original single houses (Nos 7 and 8) retain substantially intact interiors.

The terrace is constructed in brick with Roman cement render and features a Welsh slate mansard roof over the main range, with flat roofs over the end blocks. The main range consists of 12 houses arranged in handed pairs, each pair breaking forward slightly to create a regular series of recesses and projections. The complex is anchored by two larger end units, including The Convent, which rise to four storeys with basements, while the main range is three storeys with attics and basements.

Each projecting section of the main range features two segmental-roofed dormers originally fitted with double-hung sashes with margin glazing and single vertical glazing bars, the upper sashes curved. Party walls rise above the mansard with tall stacks. The parapet is now pierced with a mixture of semicircular and rectangular cut-outs serving the dormers. A prominent cornice on brackets with a pulvinated frieze runs across the facade.

The second floor of the main range has two narrow unsubdivided double-hung sash windows with plaster moulded surrounds. The first floor has two similar but deeper windows set in slight recesses with semicircular-headed moulded surrounds. The ground floor features Doric pilasters, entablature and cornice forming the base treatment. Paired, projecting flat-roofed porches, each with a semicircular arch-headed window in its flanks, punctuate the ground floor. Iron bootscrapers stand beside each front door. Original front doors to Nos 1, 2 and 5–9 retain two vertical panels; Nos 3 and 4 have six raised-and-fielded panels. Other doors are twentieth-century replacements.

The recessed sections between projecting parts have two similar dormers. The second floor displays two square double-hung sash windows with margin glazing, central vertical glazing bars and moulded plaster frames. The first floor has two aedicule pedimented windows with eared, upward-tapering architraves featuring margin glazing and central horizontal glazing bars. These windows reach to floor level and each has a projecting balcony on brackets with X-pattern iron railings between rectangular corner piers, formerly finished with ball finials. The ground floor shows a tripartite arrangement of central and two narrow double-hung sash windows with margin glazing set between pilasters. The basement repeats this arrangement with small panes.

Wing walls project between each unit within the recessions, carrying pier and wrought-iron railings that link with the porches and enclose the basement areas. These railings are adorned with ornamental 'halberds' as main supports with scroll backstays, and minor bars display pronounced spearheads. A stone-paved terrace with granite curbing fronts Nos 1–12, with remnants of iron railings at the northern end. Each unit has a stone step from road level and an iron coal-shute cover providing access to the cellar beneath.

The two larger end units are carried up to four storeys with flat-leaded roofs behind parapets. The pilaster base treatment continues through these blocks, each displaying banded giant pilasters and quoin treatment at the corners. The south-west facade of The Convent carries a similar cornice below the fourth floor. This cornice is broken and arched over a third-floor window where the facade breaks forward slightly. The third floor has two square double-hung sash windows with two vertical glazing bars and one narrow double-hung sash, all with plaster frames. The second floor shows one narrow and two wide double-hung sashes with pilasters and straight entablature, the floor-level sills set on consoles enclosing apron panels. The first floor has one narrow double-hung sash and two windows with semicircular-headed pediments. A single projecting porch occupies the ground floor.

The seaward elevation of The Convent employs similar motifs with greater variety. The second and third-floor windows are linked. One half of this facade projects with banded pilasters and quoins, featuring a projecting pilastered canted bay with pilasters and balustrade. The south-west elevation of No. 13 follows similar motifs, with the centre of its three-window range breaking forward slightly, a projecting similar porch, and separate terrace with steps. The north-east elevation, overlooking Cliff Park, is treated as an unbroken range, but The Convent and No. 13 break forward and are surmounted by pediments. The general arrangement of this facade mirrors the south-east elevation but with a continuous stone balcony at first-floor level, supported on pierced brackets and breaking forward at the end pavilions. This balcony has a simple iron handrail by Coopers of Ipswich. First-floor windows have aedicules with pediments as elsewhere. The ground floor features large frame French windows between pilasters.

The interiors of Nos 7 and 8, which remain as single houses, are substantially intact. Both feature narrow but elegant well staircases with winder corners, continuous curved soffits, continuous hardwood handrails, and alternating iron balustrades of oval loops with anthemion motifs and foliate sticks. The rooms display a variety of richly applied neo-classical cornices, including guilloche and egg-and-dart patterns, varied from room to room and unit to unit. Plaster ceiling roses, plaster skirtings, contemporary panelled doors and moulded architraves are throughout. The porch cornice of No. 8 features standing leaves. Standard-pattern marble fireplaces with shelves on consoles survive, finished in white on the first floor and black in the main ground-floor room. The interior of The Convent follows a similar scheme but on a larger scale, with a staircase bridging over a lower flight to reach the third floor. The entrance lobby and first-floor landing feature semicircular arches, with a free-standing lintel decorated with rounded embellishments. The attics contain soft water cisterns designed to collect water from the roofs.

The rear gardens represent Bagshaw MP, the only completed section of Dovercourt New Town. This monumental project was designed by William Henry Lindsey, a London architect. Bagshaw was declared bankrupt in 1859, and the necessary land was subsequently broken up. The complex as built was loosely based on Lindsey's original scheme, though the name of Horace Darken, a Dovercourt architect, appears on sale documents.