Work has begun on building nearly 100 homes at the site of a former convent beside the river in Isleworth.

The Isleworth House site, in Richmond Road, was home to religious order The Sisters of Nazareth for more than a century and was better known as Nazareth House.

They sold it in 2013 to St James, which got planning permission last September to create 98 homes in a gated development on the 7.7-acre plot.

The listed White House, chapels and stables will be converted to create 23 flats, and 39 new four to six-bedroom houses will be built.

There will also be 36 affordable ‘extra care’ apartments, to be operated by Octavia Housing, for older residents within the borough.

St James chairman Sean Ellis said: “We are very excited by this opportunity to bring back to life this important site, which has lain derelict for a long time, and to create much needed quality housing.”

The site had been vacant for more than a decade and St James said some of the buildings had started falling into disrepair.

The new development will be known as Fitzroy Gate and will include a new public footpath along the Thames from Richmond Road to Herons Place.

Clearance of the site began this month and building work is scheduled for completion in early 2017, with properties due to go on sale this autumn.

The Grade II-listed white stuccoed building known as the White House or Isleworth House was originally built for George III’s physician.

To register an interest in a home at Fitzroy Gate, call St James on 020 3326 1233 or visit www.fitzroygate.co.uk.