St Joseph's Convent Of Mercy, Gardner Street, Dundee

Archibald Macpherson, 1892, chapel by Reginald Fairlie 1921. 3-storey and attic, Gothic convent. Snecked hammer-dressed rubble with ashlar dressings.

W ELEVATION: 7-bay main front, ground floor windows transomed and partially mullioned. 2nd floor depressed ogee arched heads to windows. Central ground floor canted bay, cross-window over in cusped ogee-arched panel. Crowstepped gable with cross finial and statue in niche. Stacks in roofs slope. Modern dormers. Recessed bay to right with shouldered-arched door in ogee-arched entrance with Annunciation bas-relief over. 2-bay gable at right with mullioned and transomed windows at ground, bipartites over, 2nd floor quatrefoils in tympanum, twin louvred slits at apex.

S ELEVATION: 3-bays similarly detailed. Prominent wallhead stack corbelled out at 2nd floor with crowstepped gabled cross window to right.

N GABLE: modern timber shelter to crucifix at ground floor. Cross windows over in ogee arched recess. Crowstepped gable with gable-end stacks. Bay projects to rear.

REAR: plain, with bipartites and wallhead stacks. Single-storey gabled outshoots (kitchens etc) extending to N.

Slate roofs, swept (and reslated 1988) at chapel. Windows small-paned, casement and top-hopper.

CHAPEL: Reginald Fairlie, 1921 Romanesque. 2-storey canted link from S gable of convent to chapel with large mullioned and transomed lights. 2 2-storey gables to W elevation of chapel, left with windows in similar style to convent, right with round-arched windows and carved bargeboards. Chancel at S with stop-chamfered angles piended roof and cross finial. Niche with Virgin and child statue. Gabled E transept with porch for access to visitors gallery. Clerestory (for corridor, not aisle) at N elevation and 1-storey gable. Arched triple-light to N gable.

INTERIOR OF CHAPEL: aisleless nave lined with timber stalls and stations of the cross. Round-arched transept crossings, gallery in N transept. Altar 1925. Chancel inlaid green and grey marble to floor and walls. Stained glass to N window and chancel. Panelled ceiling.

INTERIOR OF CONVENT: largely unaltered tiled corridors with cells off and occasional altars. Stair with wrought-iron balusters and fine stained glass window by Mayer and Co (London) to 1st floor, turnpike beyond.

BOUNDARY WALLS: rubble-built with ashlar coping. Ogee-arched pedestrian gates at Gardner St and Law Steps. Later openings made at Lawside Road.