St Marys Abbey Convent Building

St Mary's Abbey Convent Building is a Grade I listed convent located in West Malling. The building dates back to the 14th century on the south side of the abbey cloister, with a house constructed by Isaac Honeywood by 1735, using stone from the ruined abbey and salvaging window surrounds. This site previously featured an earlier timber-framed post-Reformation house, as depicted in a print by Stukeley from 1724. The convent has undergone early 19th-century alterations and 20th-century additions when it returned to being a religious house.

The structure is built of stone rubble with a tiled roof and features four stone chimneystacks. It is two storeys high with attics and has an H-shaped layout with seven windows. The north front includes ground floor 14th-century cloisters supported by 17 trefoliated-headed arches. The end bays project and have gable ends with wooden fretted bargeboards. The attic contains a lancet window with leaded light, while the first floor has six double cinquefoil-headed lights and two single lights flanking a central wheel window with carved spandrels. The ground floor also has a later 20th-century lean-to verandah in stone with a pantiled roof, which is not of special interest.

The south front is made of ashlar and features two projecting gables with bargeboards. The central section has five gabled dormers, a parapet, and a cornice. The windows are primarily two-light cinquefoil-headed, with three-light windows in the first floor of the end bays and a central rose window on the first floor. The ground floor end bays feature 18th-century geometrical traceried windows. The central arched doorcase is of Gothick design, complete with pilasters and a circular fanlight.

Inside, there is a staircase hall with a Gothick cornice, two 18th-century four-centred arched doorcases, and wooden Gothick balustrading, likely from the 19th century. The rest of the interior has not been seen. A 20th-century extension to the east, designed by Sir Charles Nicholson in 1935, is not of special interest.