St Clare'S Building At St John Of God Hospital

St Clare's Building at St John of God Hospital is a convent built around 1845 or earlier for the Religious Order of Poor Clare's. It is constructed of brick with ashlar openings and has a Welsh slate roof. The building has an irregular L-shaped plan, with the ranges set back from each other and a narrow bay formed in the angle. It is designed in the Jacobethan style and has two storeys and attics, featuring three uneven bays in both main ranges.

The west elevation includes windows of chamfered-mullion type with pointed-arched lights. In the first bay on the ground floor, there is a three-light mullion-and-transom window, while on the first floor, there is a three-light Tudor-arched window with intersecting tracery. The second and third bays contain single-light and two-light windows, respectively. Above the first and second bays are gables, each featuring a pointed-arched niche that contains a statue of St Clare, along with a gable cross. The gables have shaped ashlar kneelers and raised verges with ashlar coping.

The entry is located in the left (north) return of this range, featuring a board door set within a Tudor-arched doorway. The south elevation of the northern range has ground floor mullion-and-transom windows with three, five, and three lights, and on the first floor, there are mullion windows with two, three, and two lights. There are also three later dormers in the roof.

The Poor Clare's originally lived in a mansion on the site now occupied by the St John of God Hospital, which was built in 1912. Uniquely, they ran a school for Roman Catholic girls, possibly in this building, before relocating to Darlington around 1850. The Order of St John of God took over the building in 1880.