Nationwide property developer HJ Collection Developers Ltd is carrying out construction works at Abigail Court in Lowestoft.

The building was used for convalescing service personnel in the First World War.

The convalescent home badly damaged in the Bombardment of Lowestoft in 1916. Picture: H Jenkins (Image: H Jenkins) It was badly damaged during the so-called Lowestoft Raid, in April 1916, when a German fleet bombarded the town.

The operation was planned by the Germans to coincide with the Easter Rising by Irish nationalists in Dublin.

A shell from one of the warships struck an upper room in the north east corner of the property.

No one was injured but three people were killed in nearby Sandringham Road when another shell passed through the bedroom of a house.

Abigail Court, on Park Road, consists of three buildings on land covering some 0.170 hectares.

It was also used as a hotel before being turned into flats.

Last October, plans emerged for HJ Collection Developers Ltd to convert part of the ground floor and the upper floors into 27 new apartments.Nationwide property developer HJ Collection Developers Ltd is progressing construction works at Abigail Court in Lowestoft. Picture: HJ Collection Developers Ltd (Image: HJ Collection Developers Ltd)

A new update on the developer’s website says: “The transformation has officially begun.”

Giving “a snapshot of the progress made” at Abigail Court, the company say that with scaffolding installed around the exterior of the building, window repairs are under way with the old roofing layers being stripped ahead of installing a new roof.

It said all electrical work in the flats had been completed and new fire doors were being installed.

It added: “Levels one and two flats are nearing the completion stage.”