St Edward'S Convent Of Mercy, And School

St Edward's Convent of Mercy, and School

Convent, House of Mercy and Schools built between 1850 and 1852 to the designs of Gilbert Blount, with Messrs. Smith and Appleford as builders. The chapel was designed by Edward Goldie around 1894. The building is faced in ragstone with brick exposed to the south wall of the chapel nave, and has slate roofs.

The complex comprises four ranges forming a quadrangle with a narrow courtyard. The principal dormitory range to the east originally faced Blandford Square. It rises two storeys over a high basement, with the second floor treated as gabled half-dormers forming a fourteen-window range of Gothic Revival character. The jagged silhouette is produced by a succession of dormers. The entrance is positioned near the centre line in a slightly projecting range that finishes in a large gabled dormer, with a broad dormer to the north. An oriel window sits above the entrance, and above this is a niche containing a statue of St Edward. The lancet windows have trefoiled heads, grouped variously, some with mullions and transoms.

The entrance is flanked by setback buttresses and features an original plank, studded door. To the left is a window with reticulated tracery. The elements and finishes of this elevation are repeated on the range facing the quadrangle, enlivened by chimney breasts, a greater variety of dormers, and idiosyncratic details including flying buttresses on the south elevation and divided chimney breasts. The courtyard is crowded with two-storey ranges housing basement and first-floor corridors. The south side of the quadrangle is closed by a two-window range structure with its own roof and a bell cote to the west gable; its position suggests it postdates the dormitory and west ranges and is very likely contemporary with the chapel range.

The west elevation of the House of Mercy, visible from Lisson Grove, resembles the elevation to Harewood Avenue. The interiors retain many original features and details, including fireplaces, doors with pointed-arch diaphragm arches, strutted lean-to roofs, and an open-well stair with original wood railings.

The School is two storeys over basement with half dormers. On the west elevation, the gable end and Gothic windows remain visible above the post-war extension, though the east gable end is wholly hidden by post-war infill. The north elevation features full-height projecting broaching at the top to a polygonal roof.

The original school room was on the ground floor, rectangular in plan with eight bays formed from heavy bridging joists strengthened by ironwork trusses detailed in the Gothic manner. The first-floor hall of eight bays was built as a chapel, with wood trusses of interesting construction: massive scissor trusses supported by cruck-like braces springing from the floor. Three segmental-arched fireplaces line the south wall.

The Chapel has a square-ended chancel with a painted wooden vault of three bays, the thin ribs creating tracery patterns. Seven steps lead from the chancel floor to a carved stone altar and reredos featuring a lamentation to the altar front and censing angels to an arcaded reredos. A moulded chancel arch has pedestal reliquaries at its feet, each with a finely carved capital displaying naturalistic ornament—roses to the south and lilies to the north. Polychromed wood statues stand on each pedestal. The east and side walls of the chapel are bare except for gilt-flamed paintings of religious figures; the east wall is unfenestrated but relieved on the outside by a sculpture niche. Three lancets light the south side of the chancel. A watching gallery and vestry occupy the north side, and the chancel is linked to the dormitory range by a ribbed traceried turret with setback buttresses to the exterior bays.

The nave spans six roof bays with scissor-braced tie beams to stout principals, all simply stained. An organ gallery of three bays extends from the west end, containing a Victorian organ and case in the north corner with pipes retaining their original colouring. Plain plastered interior elevations are relieved by a painted and gilded sill band bearing an inscription. In the nave, three canopied niches line each long elevation, each containing a free-standing sculpture of good quality. The west end of the nave is separated from the conventual area by a sliding wood screen of Gothic tracery.

Historical Context: The Sisters of Mercy were founded in Dublin in 1831. Their first convent in Britain was located in Bermondsey, which was destroyed in the Blitz. Houses also existed at Birmingham and Liverpool, both destroyed, and all three of these earlier convents were designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. St Edward's was founded in Queen Square on 2 August 1844 as a religious and welfare establishment for the local poor.