St John's Square — The Invisible Round Church
Granite circular lines traced in the paving of St John's Square in London mark the outline of an extraordinary round church nave consecrated in 1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. Founded around 1144 on ten acres granted by Jordan de Bricet, the site served as the English headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller. Destroyed during Wat Tyler's Peasant Revolt on June 13, 1381, only a 12th-century crypt with roughly 150 carved X symbols survives today.
London · from the walk “Monks, Martyrs & Marxists” · audio ~4 min · Generated
St John's Square, London EC1V 4JJ
- Norman baron Jordan de Bricet granted ten acres around 1144 to establish the Knights Hospitaller headquarters in St John's Square.
- Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem consecrated the round church nave in St John's Square on March 10, 1185.
- On June 13, 1381, Wat Tyler's rebels burned the priory in St John's Square and executed seven people inside.
- A surviving 12th-century crypt beneath St John's Square features around 150 mysterious X symbols carved into its stone walls.
What do the circular granite lines in the paving of St John's Square in London represent?
Now look down at your feet. Do you see those circular lines traced in the paving stones? That ring of granite beneath you is a ghost... the outline of a church that vanished centuries ago.......... What if I told you that in eleven eighty-five, one of the most powerful men in Christendom stood Right Here... and consecrated this ground? His name was Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem himself. He had travelled thousands of miles carrying the keys to the Tower of David and the banner of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, desperate to convince King Henry the Second to lead a new crusade. Henry held a council at this very priory on the tenth of March... but his barons refused to let him go. Heraclius returned home empty-handed. Just two years later, Jerusalem fell to Saladin.......... The church Heraclius consecrated was extraordinary. It was built as a great round nave... modelled directly on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Think of Temple Church, just across the city. Same idea. A piece of the Holy Land, transplanted into English soil. This was the English headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller, founded around eleven forty-four on ten acres of land granted by a Norman baron named Jordan de Bricet.......... And what a place it became! The priory grew so wealthy and so grand that the antiquarian William Camden later described it as resembling a palace, with a tower steeple of such fine workmanship that it was, in his words, a singular beauty and ornament to the city.......... But the story turned Violent. On the evening of the thirteenth of June, thirteen eighty-one, Wat Tyler's rebels stormed this priory... set it ablaze, beheaded seven men inside these walls, and burned every document they could find. Their target was Prior Robert Hales, who also served as Royal Treasurer. He wasn't here. He'd fled to the Tower of London... where the mob found him anyway and took his head on Tower Hill.......... The priory was rebuilt, only to be dissolved by Henry the Eighth in fifteen forty. The last prior, William Weston, was offered a generous pension... but he died that same year. Some say of a broken heart.......... What survived? Beneath that church over there, a twelfth-century crypt still stands... one of the Oldest in all of London. And if you visit it, look closely at the walls. Around one hundred and fifty mysterious X symbols have been carved into the stone. Their meaning is uncertain... but they may have been scratched there by people hoping to ward off evil spirits.......... And this circle at your feet? It is all that remains of that original round nave. An invisible church, hiding in plain sight.