This is an archaeological, architectural and historical study of one of
the largest complexes of buildings in the medieval City of London, but
one which is largely unknown and of which only two fragments survive
above ground today. It is the fifth volume in a series on the
monasteries of London. Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, was the first
religious house to be established inside the walls of London after the
Norman Conquest, in 11078; one of the earliest Augustinian houses to be
established in England; and the first to be dissolved, in 1532. By 1200
the precinct north of Leadenhall Street and just inside Aldgate was
filled with imposing stone buildings, including a large and
architecturally impressive church which was the burial place of two of
the children of King Stephen in the middle of the 12th century. Londons
first mayor, Henry FitzAilwin, was buried in the entrance to the chapter
house. In the 16th century the monastery was owned by the Duke of
Norfolk, second only to Queen Elizabeth in power, who was executed in
1572 for his part in plots surrounding Mary Queen of Scots. Several
modern excavations of 1977 to 1990, many antiquarian drawings, and a
ground-floor and a first-floor plan of all the monastery buildings made
around 1585 are brought together here for the first time, to reconstruct
a fully illustrated and detailed history and archaeology of the priory
site. Not only can all the major periods of the priorys building history
be suggested and compared with other religious houses in medieval
London, but the excavations produced their own surprises, such as
evidence of the beginning of the tin-glazed or delftware pottery
industry in the 1590s, and a unique Jewish plate of the 18th century.
