When the church opened in July 1906, the Sisters gained the use of the ground floor at 28 Park Avenue; they rented the house next door in addition and the buildings became a Convent as well as a school.
The long walks from Harlesden in all weathers were over! The school prospered and by 1914 premises were needed with facilities for outdoor activities; No. 28 had, unusually for a house of that size in that period, very little garden. The nuns acquired Nos. 21-23 Park Avenue, a pair of semi-detached villas set well back from the road and with a third, Georgian house, known as Willesden Lodge, on the far side of large grounds.
The first Mass in the new convent was said on 25th March 1915 by Fr. Francis Vaughan.
In due course, after the demolition of the church hall in 1927, these grounds became familiar to parishioners as the venue for the Corpus Christi procession.
The education provided here — now a High School for girls and a preparatory school for boys — was appreciated by non-Catholics as well as Catholics. Fr. Fitzgerald, Parish Priest in the 1930s, was to write:
“The Sisters were a tower of strength. In addition to teaching in the school, they helped in the sacristy, taught catechism, gave free places and places at a reduced rate in their school.”
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