3-101-151 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Charterhouse - cloisters, c1880. The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Clerkenwell, London, dating from the 14th century. It was originally built as (and takes its name from) a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371 on the site of a Black Death burial ground. Following the priory's dissolution in 1537, it was rebuilt from 1545 onwards to become one of the great courtyard houses of Tudor London. In 1611, the property was bought by Thomas Sutton, a businessman and "the wealthiest commoner in England", who established a school for the young and an almshouse for the old. The almshouse remains in occupation, while the school was re-located in 1872 to Godalming, Surrey. "The walls are of the date of the old Monastery; alterations by the Duke of Norfolk are marked by a date in the brickwork. Mr Roper [W.J.D. Roper Chronicles of Charterhouse by a Carthusian] gives an engraving of an ancient door-way, since destroyed, opening on to the Cloisters." Description by Alfred Marks.