St John's Square — Where the Priory Stood
St John's Square in London marks the site of the 12th-century Clerkenwell Priory, where granite pavement setts outline a grand 65-foot round nave modeled on Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre. Founded around 1144 on land granted by Jordan de Briset, it served as the English headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller. Consecrated in 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem, the priory was burned during the 1381 Peasants' Revolt and dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540.
London · from the walk “Monks, Martyrs & Revolutionaries” · audio ~3 min · Generated
St John's Square, EC1M 4AY
- Jordan de Briset granted ten acres of land to establish the Clerkenwell Priory at St John's Square around 1144.
- Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem consecrated the round nave at St John's Square on March 10, 1185.
- Peasants' Revolt rebels burned the priory at St John's Square for seven days starting on June 13, 1381.
- King Henry VIII dissolved the Hospitaller complex at St John's Square in 1540, selling the church for £1,000.
Why are circular granite setts laid into the pavement at St John's Square in London?
Look down at the ground beneath your feet. You see those granite cobblestones set into the pavement in a wide circle? That is no decorative flourish. What if I told you that curve traces the Exact outline of a medieval church... built to echo the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem itself?......... You are standing in Saint John's Square... but this was never meant to be a square at all. From the eleven forties until the Dissolution, this was the inner precinct of the great Priory of Clerkenwell... the English headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller. The priory was founded around eleven forty four, on ten acres of land granted by a Norman baron named Jordan de Briset. And the church that once rose here had a Round nave... with an internal diameter of some sixty five feet, faced in finely dressed stone. It was one of the largest and grandest round naves in all of Britain.......... And listen to who consecrated it! On the tenth of March, eleven eighty five, Heraclius, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem himself, consecrated this very church. He had travelled all the way from the Holy Land carrying the keys to the City of Jerusalem, the Holy Sepulchre, and the Tower of David. He came to Beg King Henry the Second to lead a new crusade. Henry summoned his barons Here, to this priory, for a Great Council. But the barons refused to let the king go. Heraclius was Furious. He reportedly declared Henry and his children to be "of the devil"... and stormed out.......... Then came thirteen eighty one. The Peasants' Revolt. On the evening of Thursday, the thirteenth of June, a large armed mob broke into the priory, set it ablaze... and let NO one quench the flames. The fire burned for Seven days. The rebels' target was Robert Hales, the Prior, who also happened to be Treasurer of England and architect of the hated poll tax. He was dragged from the Tower of London and beheaded.......... The priory was eventually rebuilt... only to be dissolved by Henry the Eighth in fifteen forty. He sold the church for a thousand pounds and used the rest of the complex to store his hunting nets. Parts of the original circular nave were rediscovered in nineteen hundred during work on the crypt, and that is when those granite setts were laid to mark its ghostly outline. So next time you cross this square... remember you are walking through the walls of a church where Crusader knights once knelt in prayer.