3-101-172 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Charterhouse - General View, c1880. The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Clerkenwell, London, dating from the 14th century. It was originally built as a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371. Following the priory's dissolution in 1537, it became 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. 'On the spectator's left is the gateway, a Tudor arch with a dripstone terminating in corbels, and a shelf supported by two lions, the work of the early part of the sixteenth century (Roper). Archdeacon Hale, in his explanation of a plan of the Monastery, of a date somewhat later than 1430, says: "We find two kitchens mentioned, ... the second, the building numbered 3, the remains of which are to be found in the wall next the present gateway of the Charterhouse, formed of squares of flint and stone." In the description on the roll containing the plan, this kitchen is quaintly named "Egipte, the fleyshe kychyne".' Description by Alfred Marks.