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

St Joseph's Convent of Mercy is a three-storey and attic Gothic convent building dating from 1892, with a Romanesque chapel added by Reginald Fairlie in 1921. The convent is constructed of snecked hammer-dressed rubble with ashlar dressings.

The west elevation comprises seven bays and features ground floor windows with transoms and partial mullions. Second-floor windows have depressed ogee arched heads. A central ground floor canted bay is topped by a cross window within a cusped ogee-arched panel. The crowstepped gable includes a cross finial and a statue within a niche. Stacks rise from the roofs. Modern dormers have been added. A recessed bay to the right contains a shouldered-arched door within an ogee-arched entrance, with an Annunciation bas-relief above. A two-bay gable on the right features mullioned and transomed ground floor windows, bipartites above, and second-floor quatrefoils within the tympanum, with twin louvred slits at the apex.

The south elevation is similarly detailed in three bays. A prominent wallhead stack corbels out at the second floor, with a crowstepped gabled cross window to the right.

The north gable includes a modern timber shelter for a crucifix at ground floor level, set within an ogee arched recess, with crowstepped gable and gable-end stacks. A bay projects to the rear.

The rear elevation is plain, with bipartites and wallhead stacks. Single-storey gabled outshoots, originally for kitchens and similar purposes, extend to the north.

The roofs are slate, swept and reslated in 1988. Windows are small-paned, with casement and top-hopper openings.

The Romanesque chapel, added in 1921, connects to the south gable of the convent via a two-storey canted link with large mullioned and transomed lights. The chapel’s west elevation features two two-storey gables; the left one with windows in a style similar to the convent, while the right one has round-arched windows and carved bargeboards. The chancel is at the south, with a piended roof, stop-chamfered angles, and a cross finial. A niche contains a Virgin and Child statue. A gabled east transept provides a porch for access to a visitors' gallery. A clerestory, intended for a corridor rather than an aisle, is located on the north elevation, with a single-storey gable. An arched triple-light is present on the north gable.

The interior of the chapel features an aisleless nave lined with timber stalls and stations of the cross, round-arched transept crossings, and a gallery in the north transept. The altar dates from 1925. The chancel has floors and walls inlaid with green and grey marble, stained glass to the north window and chancel, and a panelled ceiling.

The convent's interior is largely unaltered, retaining tiled corridors and cells, with occasional altars. A staircase has wrought-iron balusters and a fine stained glass window by Mayer and Co (London), with a turnpike beyond.

Boundary walls are rubble-built with ashlar coping. Ogee-arched pedestrian gates are located at Gardner Street and Law Steps. Later openings have been made at Lawside Road.