Exclude subdirs from auto add to SVN or any VCS

I am currently working on implementing a major change in a larger project. More specifically I’m changing the whole character model for another one with new graphics, ne BPs etc. It’s a huge and lengthy task.
I removed the old character subdirectory with over 1000 files from SVN in an external SVN client because I dont want to wait 10 minutes for all those dependencies to check out and in when I’m going to delete that whole folder in a few weeks anyway since it’s obsolete.
Yet UE keeps adding those files sinside the editor every now and then. Is there a way to tell UE to ignore a subdirectory for it’s VCS integration?
Thanks