London Charterhouse

The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Clerkenwell, London, dating from the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square, and lies within the London Borough of Islington. It was originally built as (and takes its name from) a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371 on the site of a Black Death burial ground. Following the priory's dissolution in 1537, it was rebuilt from 1545 onwards to become one of the great courtyard houses of Tudor London. In 1611, the property was bought by Thomas Sutton, a businessman and "the wealthiest commoner in England", who established a school for the young and an almshouse for the old. The almshouse remains in occupation today, while the school was re-located in 1872 to Godalming, Surrey.

Although substantial fragments survive from the monastic period, most of the standing buildings date from the Tudor era. Thus, today the complex "conveys a vivid impression of the type of large rambling 16th-century mansion that once existed all round London".

History

Priory

In 1348, Walter Manny rented 13 acres (5.3 ha) of land in Spital Croft, north of Long Lane, from the Master and Brethren of St Bartholomew's Hospital for a graveyard and plague pit for victims of the Black Death. A chapel and hermitage were constructed, renamed New Church Haw; in 1371, however, this land was granted for the foundation of a Carthusian monastery under called "The House of the Salutation of the Mother of God".