Charterhouse Square, EC1M
Barbican
Credit: User unknown/public domain
Charterhouse Square is the largest courtyard associated with London Charterhouse, mostly formed of Tudor and Stuart architecture restored after the Blitz.

The 2-acre square roughly covers a large 14th century plague pit, discovered during excavations for Crossrail.

In 1371 a Carthusian monastery was founded by Walter de Manny on what is now the north side of the square. The name of the monastery was Charterhouse - derived as an Anglicisation of ’La Grande Chartreuse’ whose order founded the monastery.

Charterhouse was dissolved as a monastery in 1537, and in 1545 was purchased by Sir Edward North and transformed into a mansion house. Following North’s death, the property was bought by Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, who was imprisoned there in 1570 after scheming to marry Mary, Queen of Scots.

Thomas Sutton then bought the Charterhouse, and on his death in 1611, endowed a hospital (almshouse) and school on the site, which both opened in 1614, supporting 80 pensioners. The school for boys coexisted with the home for pensioners until 1872 when Charterhouse School moved to Godalming, Surrey.

The Charterhouse complex includes a Tudor Great Hall, Chapel, Great Chamber, the Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry and an almshouse.



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