Minories is one of the old streets of the City of London.
Minories runs north-south. The boundary between the City and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets used to run haphazardly between Minories and Mansell Street until boundary changes in 1994 relocated the present-day border along Mansell Street. Minories is now entirely within the City of London.
The name is derived from the former Abbey of the Minoresses of St Clare without Aldgate, founded in 1294. A small side-road off Minories is named St Clare Street. Minories was in the ancient parish of St Botolph without Aldgate until 1557, when it became extra-parochial.
The area was a ’papal peculiar’ outside the jurisdiction of the English bishops. The abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the property passed to the Crown. In 1686, the area became part of the Liberties of the Tower of London.
The Minories area historically hosted a large Jewish community.
