The London Charterhouse – From Monks to Thomas More to Almshouse
The Charterhouse in London is a former 1348 Black Death burial ground and 1371 Carthusian monastery that became a Tudor mansion and remains an active almshouse today. Founded by Sir Walter Manny, the site holds an estimated 50,000 plague victims. In 1611, Thomas Sutton purchased the estate to establish a refuge for impoverished men, which currently houses around 40 resident Brothers.
London · from the walk “Clerkenwell Uncovered: From the World's First Tube to London's Radical Heart” · audio ~3 min · Generated
The Charterhouse, Charterhouse Square, London EC1M 6AN
- In 1348, Sir Walter Manny leased land at The Charterhouse as a plague cemetery for up to 50,000 victims.
- King Henry VIII executed 18 Carthusian monks from The Charterhouse after May 1535 for refusing his authority.
- Queen Elizabeth I stayed at The Charterhouse for five days in 1558 before her official coronation.
- Thomas Sutton purchased The Charterhouse in 1611 to create an almshouse that currently houses about 40 residents.
Why was land at The Charterhouse in London leased in 1348?
You are standing on ground that holds one of London's darkest and most layered secrets. Beneath the peaceful green of Charterhouse Square lie the remains of thousands... victims of the Black Death. In thirteen forty-eight, as plague ravaged the city and claimed an estimated sixty percent of London's population, a knight named Sir Walter Manny leased this land as an emergency burial ground. It is thought that as many as fifty thousand bodies were buried here. In twenty thirteen, Crossrail excavations uncovered twenty-five skeletons in just one small corner of the square... and Dna analysis confirmed the presence of Yersinia Pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague.......... But from death came devotion. In thirteen seventy-one, Sir Walter Manny founded a Carthusian monastery right here, on the edge of the burial ground. Its official name? "The House of the Salutation of the Mother of God." Twenty-five monks lived in near total silence, each in his own small dwelling with a private garden. Their meals, entirely meat-free, were passed through a hatch in the cell door. Even a young Thomas More came here for spiritual retreat... before choosing a life in politics instead.......... Then came Henry the Eighth. When the monks refused to accept the King as Supreme Head of the Church, Henry made a Brutal example of them. Prior John Houghton was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn in May fifteen thirty-five... and then, in a chilling act of intimidation, his severed hand was nailed to the Charterhouse door. Eighteen monks in all were killed. Some were starved to death in Newgate Prison. One, Sebastion Newdigate, was a personal Friend of the King. Henry himself visited him twice in prison to persuade him to give in... but Newdigate refused and went to his death.......... After the monastery fell, the buildings had an unlikely chapter. Henry's court musicians, the Bassano family from Venice, moved into the old monks' cells. A recorder they crafted here was later found in the wreck of the Mary Rose!......... By fifteen fifty-eight, the site had become a Tudor mansion grand enough for royalty. Elizabeth the First stayed for five days before her Coronation, holding her very first Privy Council in the Great Chamber. And then, espionage! When Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, owned the house, agents discovered a Ciphered letter from Mary Queen of Scots hidden under a Doormat... sealing his fate.......... Finally, in sixteen eleven, a man named Thomas Sutton, called the wealthiest commoner in England, bought the estate and transformed it into a school and an almshouse for, as his will stated, "gentlemen fallen into poverty, soldiers maimed by sea or land, merchants ruined by shipwreck." That almshouse is Still here today. Around forty residents, called Brothers, live within these walls... making the Charterhouse one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in all of London.