Nothing
remains of this twelfth-century priory now save St John's
Gate and the crypt of St John's Clerkenwell. Jordan Brisset
and his wife Muriel founded the priory in 1185, and it became
the headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers, its buildings
and gardens covering five acres from St John's Gate down to
Farringdon Street (built over the Wells River). The priory
provided a hospice or refuge (rather than a hospital) for
any stranger for three days. Prior to the end of the fourteenth
century the priory was tremendously wealthy.
Burned
to the ground during the Peasants' revolt of 1381, the priory
was subsequently rebuilt. It was said that it resembled a
palace, with its spires and gardens, and St John's Gate itself
heavily adorned in lead. During the Dissolution
of the Monasteries most of the priory buildings and land
was sold, and little remained by the eighteenth century. Protector
Somerset blew up the tower of the priory and used the stone
to make Somerset House
in the Strand.
