3-101-173 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Charterhouse - Washhouse Court, exterior, 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. 'Archdeacon Hale says: "If not coeval with the building of the monastery as shown" (in the plan annexed to his paper), "it must have been a very early addition to it. Three sides of it still remain; the windows and doorways give evidence of a great variety of structure and of date, and the joints of the brickwork proofs of many alterations. There are letters on the west external wall" (No.39), "J.H., which we would willingly assume to be initials of John Houghton, the last Prior but one, and the wall itself as of his building".' Description by Alfred Marks.