Museums

Museum of the Order of St John

A Tudor gatehouse and a Norman crypt in Clerkenwell, free, and the road from the crusader knights to the St John Ambulance.

The Knights of St John began as the monks who ran a hospital for pilgrims in Jerusalem in the eleventh century, became a military order in the crusades, and held Rhodes and then Malta against the Ottomans; their English headquarters was the priory founded at Clerkenwell in 1144. St John's Gate, built in 1504, is what survives of it above ground, with the twelfth-century crypt of the priory church across the square. After Henry VIII dissolved the order the gate had a second life: the Master of the Revels licensed plays here, Shakespeare's among them; the Gentleman's Magazine was printed here with the young Samuel Johnson on its staff; and Hogarth's father kept a coffee house in it. The order, revived in Victorian England, bought the gate back in 1874 and founded the St John Ambulance from it three years later, and the museum tells all of it, from Maltese armour to the first-aid handbooks. Entry is free; the crypt and the rooms upstairs are seen on the guided tours.

Where

St John's Lane, EC1M 4DA

Nearest station

Farringdon · 3 min walk

Hours

NearbyMuseums

• Goldsmiths' Centre1 min walk
• The Charterhouse3 min walk
• St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum6 min walk

NearbyOther Categories

• Clerkenwell GreenBeautiful Streets3 min walk
• Marx Memorial LibraryPower & Politics3 min walk
• fabricPerformance venues3 min walk

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