Convent Site

The Convent site is currently home to Brighton College’s Prep School with pupils leaving the school after Year 8. The site is located adjacent to the main College Campus.

The site comprises several buildings from various periods. Originally the site was developed as a pair of 19th-century lodge buildings. The lodges were converted into a convent and in 1913 a chapel was opened to the north-west corner of the site. The site became a school in 1972 and was extended several times in a piecemeal fashion in over the 20th Century.

Convent Proposal

Design approach

The current Prep School is a cluster of buildings from different periods, making the organisation incoherent, inefficient and difficult to use for both teaching and cocurricular purposes.

The proposal is to convert the existing villa and chapel to a boarding house. The 20th century, poor quality extensions would be removed and a new high quality boarding house, sympathetic to the conservation area and neighbouring convent and Belle Vue properties would be introduced. A roof extension would be added to the original roofs of the paired lodges.

A landscaping scheme would enhance the open space and provide green areas for quiet contemplation.

Pedestrian access would be from Walpole Road and service access would continue to be from Belle Vue Gardens. Combined, the two boarding houses will be a home from home for c150 children aged 13-18 and boarding staff.

In addition, there will be common rooms, kitchens and support spaces including matrons’ offices for supervision during the day, laundry rooms and sanitary provision.

The College welcomes a mix of weekly and full boarders none of whom travel to school daily.

As a result, vehicular movements around the site will reduce significantly.