The Charterhouse

The Charterhouse is an almshouse on Charterhouse Square with a free museum display, a chapel and a shop, which open Tuesday to Saturday 10.30am to 4.30pm with no booking required. Guided tours run Tuesday to Saturday at 11am and 2.15pm, and Charterhouse Square opens Tuesday to Sunday from early morning until dusk. The display holds 120 objects, including 35 loans from Charterhouse School, London Museum and the V&A, and was curated with the London Museum under the National Lottery Heritage Fund project 'Revealing the Charterhouse'. The buildings are Grade I listed, NHLE 1298101; the Master's Lodge and attached railings are separately Grade I, NHLE 1280100, and Pensioners' Court and Stable Court are Grade II, NHLE 1195528.

History

In 1348 the land of Charterhouse Square was leased by Sir Walter Manny as a Black Death burial ground, and a Carthusian monastery was founded next to it in 1371. Prior John Houghton and his monks were executed during the dissolution of 1535-1540 and the house was taken by the Crown; Sir Edward North bought it in 1545 and turned it into a Tudor mansion. Thomas Sutton acquired Howard House in 1611; the first assembly of sixteen Governors met in 1613 and set rules for 80 pensioners, 40 scholars and 32 officials, and the Charterhouse Act confirmed the foundation in 1627. Charterhouse School moved out to Godalming, Surrey, in 1872, and the almshouse remained. An incendiary bomb hit the buildings in 1941 and the Chapel survived because its heavy wooden door was closed. John Seely and Paul Paget led the 1945-1959 restoration, which recovered the monastic foundations and Sir Walter Manny's remains.

History

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