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St Joseph's Convalescent Home was run by a Roman Catholic charity, with nursing care given by nuns. It closed in 2006 and there was a plan to develop the site, which caused considerable opposition locally, for two reasons. Many people felt that the two Victorian houses should be kept to form part of new buildings, and the planned new building would be too large and out of keeping with the area. These views were expressed very strongly at a meeting between residents, local councillors and planning officers at Woodside Methodist Church on 13th October 2009. However the council had no powers to force the developers to retain the Victorian houses, and demolition started in mid-October 2009. The developers claimed that the empty buildings were subject to severe vandalism and attempts at arson, and demolished them for safety reasons.
The developer planned an 81-bed care home on the site, which would have accommodated substantially more residents and staff than the old convalescent home.
Update June 2016 : nearly 7 years later the site of St Josephs was still empty and getting overgrown. The developers re-applied for permission to build a smaller building, but it didn't happen. On 12 June 2016 there was a small exhibition at Woodside Methodist Church of new plans for the site, to build 12 houses for sale and 26 apartments for affordable renting.
Update June 2020 : The new development was completed in late autumn 2019. The new road has been named Catherine's Walk, a few of the flats and houses were occupied and a show home was open. The Covid-19 lockdown in early March 2020 caused severe restrictions on property sales and new rentals, so parts of Catherine's Walk remained empty somewhat longer than the developers would hope. From the start of June, restrictions on estate agents and letting agents were relaxed, so people may soon move into the remaining empty properties.

Created: Sun, 25 Oct 2009, Updated: Tue, 9 Jun 2020