Plans have been approved to downsize part of a historic convent by converting part of it into homes.
Two buildings at the Convent of Mercy on Hillside Drive, Gravesend, are set to be converted into townhouses, and another one turned into a bungalow.
The convent is run by the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic religious institution founded in Dublin in 1831.
They have had a presence in Gravesend since 1860, and been on the current site since 1951, but have recently been pursuing plans to downsize.
“Numbering over 50 nuns at their peak in the 1960s, the community has shrunk to a small number of elderly sisters,” planning application documents explain.
“The convent is now too large for their needs, and costly to run and maintain.”
Plans to convert two buildings and demolish an extension to replace it with a bungalow were originally submitted to Gravesham council in late December last year.
In March 2024, plans were also approved for the nuns to occupy only half of the convent – a building named Theydon, a 50s-build block, and their chapel.
The nuns currently live in the two buildings called Hillside and Rydal, which are set for conversion into six-bedroom townhouses.
But they soon “will decant into their newly refurbished accommodation,” planning documents say.
The two buildings to be converted were originally townhouses already, between 1929 and when the Sisters moved in.
As well as the townhouse conversions, a single-storey extension of the convent is set to be demolished and replaced with a two-bedroom bungalow.
The plans add: “The mansion was originally divided into the three terraced houses, Theydon, Hillside and Rydal, before the 1950s when the Sisters of Mercy acquired the building and eventually joined the houses together to form the convent.
“This planning submission, then, is a proposal to redevelop and convert the buildings surplus to the downsized Convent, ie Hillside and Rydal, back into the houses they once were.”
The “surplus land” next to the convent is also proposed for redevelopment under future planning applications, according to documents submitted with the current bid.
The convent also used to run the private St Joseph’s Preparatory School in nearby Old Road East, which closed in 2021 and is set to become a new housing estate and medical centre.
Read more: ‘School’s out forever: New pictures show inside primary school ahead of demolition
However, 15 objections to the current application were sent to Gravesham council.
One neighbour wrote: “Trying to squeeze in a small two-bedroom bungalow in the remaining space is overdevelopment, not in keeping at all with the current properties and layout of this private drive.”
Another neighbour described the bungalow plans as “overdevelopment of the area, especially when we have been informed that there are plans for further development on the lawns and green space to the north of the convent.”
Despite the objections, the council’s planning department approved the plans on July 9.
