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The Charterhouse

A plague pit, a monastery, a Tudor palace and, since 1611, an almshouse whose residents still live around the courts, with a free museum and tours led by them.

Best small museumsFree

A grass court inside the Charterhouse, the hall range in flint and stone with a carved coat of arms and a red sundial — The court inside the gate, on a summer afternoon.

A brick and flint tower with a cupola and gilded weathervane, above an arcaded cloister of three gables — The chapel tower, above the cloister.

A cobbled courtyard inside the Charterhouse, stone ranges with dormer windows — One of the courts inside.

Charterhouse Square's cobbles looking towards the gatehouse and its clock turret — Looking towards the entrance from the square.

Charterhouse Square at dusk, lit windows in the Georgian range and the gatehouse beyond — Charterhouse Square at dusk.

A garden of clipped box in a knot pattern and a bed of yellow rudbeckias, purple geraniums and red spikes of flowers, in front of a stone and brick tower with leaded windows, a gabled Tudor range on the left and an old flint wall on the right.

Also in Literary London.

The Charterhouse began as a burial ground for the Black Death in 1348 and became, in 1371, a monastery of the Carthusians, the silent order whose prior, John Houghton, was hanged at Tyburn for refusing Henry VIII's supremacy. After the dissolution it was rebuilt as one of the great courtyard houses of Tudor London, where Elizabeth I held her first court and the Duke of Norfolk plotted for Mary, Queen of Scots, and in 1611 Thomas Sutton, the richest commoner in England, bought it to found a school for poor boys and an almshouse for old men. The school became Charterhouse and left for Surrey in 1872; the almshouse never left. Some forty Brothers, men and now women over sixty in need of a home, still live around the courts and eat in the Tudor great hall, which is why the place feels lived in rather than preserved. The museum in the gatehouse and the chapel, where Sutton lies, are free; the great chamber, the cloisters and the rest are seen on the daily tours, some of them led by a Brother.

Where: Charterhouse Square, Clerkenwell, EC1M 6AX
Nearest station: Barbican · 2 min walk

Google Maps @charterhouselondon thecharterhouse.org

Hours

Monday	Closed
Tuesday	11:00 – 16:45
Wednesday	11:00 – 16:45
Thursday	11:00 – 16:45
Friday	11:00 – 16:45
Saturday	11:00 – 16:45
Sunday	11:00 – 16:45

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.