The Comboni sisters' listed convent at 2 Chiswick Lane could become 8 flats and three 5-bed HMOs. Council officers first judged it a community facility.
The former Comboni convent at 2 Chiswick Lane could become eight flats and three five-bedroom houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). The Grade II listed building has been empty of sisters since April.
The plans are waiting for a decision from Hounslow Council. The council’s target date for deciding them, 23 September, has now passed.
The application documents show that the case turns on one question: was the convent a home, or a community facility? Council officers took the second view at the pre-application stage. The applicant’s consultants dispute it.
What is proposed
The application, P/2026/2079, is on the council’s planning register with a matching listed building consent application, P/2026/2074. The applicant is Silas Holdings Ltd. Its planning consultants, WSP, set out the scheme in a planning statement filed with the application.
The site has two main buildings. The front one is the listed house, built in the late 18th or early 19th century. Behind it is a three-storey brick extension from around 2000, joined by a single-storey link that holds a lounge and the former chapel.
The scheme would create:
- eight flats in the listed house, the link and the former chapel: five one-bedroom, two two-bedroom and one three-bedroom
- three five-bedroom HMOs, one on each floor of the modern rear building, each with en-suite rooms and a shared kitchen and living room
- a shared rear garden of about 376 square metres, with no private gardens or balconies
- cycle parking and bin stores in the existing car park and along the northern edge of the site
The three-bedroom flat is new. WSP says officers raised concerns at pre-application about the number of small one-bedroom units, and one flat was dropped to make room for it.
The question the decision turns on
Planning rules treat homes and community facilities very differently. Hounslow’s Local Plan policy CI1 protects community facilities from being lost to other uses.
According to the planning statement, officers told the applicant at pre-application that they believed the lawful use was a “missionary convent” in Use Class F1. That class covers non-residential institutions, and officers considered it a community facility.
WSP contests that. It argues the building has been used for more than 20 years as, in effect, a large house in multiple occupation: a home for retired sisters and their support staff. On that reading, it is already residential.
To prove it, the application includes:
- a letter of 14 May 2026 from a trustee of the Comboni Missionary Sisters, saying the building “was not operated or used as a public community facility”
- three signed statutory declarations from sisters who lived there recently
- a decree from the Archbishop of Westminster returning the chapel to secular use
The trustee’s letter describes what did happen inside. There was a weekly Mass, typically on Wednesdays, sometimes with a small number of invited guests. Before the pandemic there were small prayer and reflection gatherings. The sisters’ pastoral work was done out in the parish, the letter says, including taking Holy Communion to housebound parishioners and supporting local migrant groups.
The chapel was returned to secular use in March 2026, according to the same letter.
Why the sisters left
The Comboni Missionary Sisters have been at 2 Chiswick Lane for about 75 years, according to the order’s own letter of 31 March 2026. The applicant’s heritage statement dates their arrival to 1952, when the Missionary Sisters of Verona took over the convent. At its height, up to 40 sisters lived there.
In December 2025 the order’s leadership decided its work “would be better served in areas of deprivation with diverse migrant communities”. It has bought a house in Birmingham, now its registered office. No sisters have lived permanently at Chiswick Lane since 7 April.
The order has not sold up. Its letter says it has formed a joint venture with Silas Holdings to refurbish the building and let it. The rent would fund the order’s charitable work in the UK and abroad, including the care of elderly sisters. WSP argues that charitable purpose should count in the scheme’s favour.
Where the application has got to
The register gives this timeline:
| Stage | Date |
|---|---|
| Received | 15 July 2026 |
| Validated | 29 July 2026 |
| Public consultation | 6 August to 6 September 2026 |
| Site notice put up | 16 August 2026 |
| Target decision date | 23 September 2026 |
| Status on 27 September | Registered, under assessment |
The register records a site notice put up on 16 August, ten days into the consultation, and a notice in the local press.
It is listed as a major application, because it would create 11 homes in all. Hounslow has not said whether it will be decided by officers or by councillors. If it goes to councillors, the next Planning Committee is on 5 November. The meeting planned for 1 October has been cancelled.
Two numbers the documents do not agree on
We read the planning statement against the other application documents. Two figures do not match.
- Parking. The site has six spaces now. The transport statement says this would fall to three, all for the flats. The planning statement gives three in one section and five, including one accessible bay, in another. Both documents say HMO tenants would be barred from the car park and from council parking permits. The street is in controlled zone EC/1.
- Rooms. The planning statement says the building has 34 bedrooms. The order’s own letter says the facility “currently has 15 rooms”.
Neither changes what is proposed, but both are the kind of detail the council’s officers will need to settle.
What it means for you
- The formal consultation has closed, but councils usually take account of comments that arrive before a decision is made. Quote P/2026/2079 for the planning application and P/2026/2074 for the listed building consent.
- If you live on Cranbrook Road or the streets just west of the site, note that the three HMOs would be in the rear building, with their own entrance off the shared garden. The HMO management plan filed with the application sets out house rules on noise and antisocial behaviour.
- Watch the Planning Committee agenda for 5 November, published about a week before. If the application is not on it, a decision may be issued by officers instead, and it will appear on the register.
For other applications around the town, see our Chiswick planning news page.
Sources
- Hounslow Council planning register, application P/2026/2079 (overview, timeline and status, read 27 September 2026) and listed building consent P/2026/2074.
- Application documents on the register: WSP planning statement (June 2026), heritage statement (July 2026), transport statement (15 July 2026), Comboni Missionary Sisters letters of 31 March and 14 May 2026.
- Hounslow Council Planning Committee meetings list, showing 1 October 2026 cancelled and 5 November 2026 as the next meeting.
Have your say