page_title: St Joseph's Convent, Taunton
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: St Joseph's Convent, Taunton / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Former convent of St. Joseph
context_page_description: St Joseph's Convent is a complex of 18th- and 19th-century buildings in Taunton, Somerset, which were primarily used as a Roman Catholic convent, first by the Franciscans, and then Sisters of St. Joseph of Annecy. The buildings were sold out of the Catholic church in 1976, and were redeveloped as residential flats in 2005. The main building is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, while the boundary walls on the west side are Grade II listed.
  The main building was begun in 1772, as a free hospital for the poor, but funding ran out two years later, and it was completed as a private residence. In the early 19th century, it was bought by a group of Franciscan nuns, who moved from an unsatisfactory site in Winchester. The nuns carried out a number of additions and extensions to the building to make it more suitable for their needs. They moved out of Taunton in 1950 and sold the convent to the Sisters of St. Joseph, who continued to run a school on the site for the next twenty-six years.
context_section_description: The main building is a symmetrical three-storey house built of red brick, with a yellow brick central range which was added later. The building has a cornice and parapet, and a bowed end which projects to the east. On the south side, there is an additional attic storey. The house retains its original sash windows, and on the first floor some of the windows have wrought-iron balconettes. An addition to the building has been made in the south-west, including an arcade on the ground floor, and a bell tower. Further additions were made to the main building in the 19th century, including a Gothic chapel of red brick with ashlar dressings to the north. There are later buildings on either side of the chapel: to the west is a 19th-century building with a two-storey entrance porch, while a Gothic cloister, comprising two walks with scissor-trussed timber roofs, lies to the east. There is a further extension to the south, which is not part of the Grade II* listing.
  A summerhouse was added to the grounds, probably alongside the 19th-century additions to the main building. It was constructed of red and white brick, and had a steep slate roof. The east side displayed a crucifix. The building was Grade II listed in July 1975, but has since been demolished. The stone walls around the site are Grade II listed where they are the original "high stone rubble wall with brick capping"; in other places they have been renovated in newer red brick.
caption: The buildings
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