Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate

1849 engraving of London, Westminster and Southwark in 1543. In this detail the Minories can be seen just above and to the left of the White Tower/Tower of London. Note the close proximity of the scaffold on Tower Hill, shown to the left of the Minories.
Ruins of the abbey of the Minoress of St Clare of Aldgate, London 1796

The Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate[nb 1] was a monastery of Franciscan women living an enclosed life, established in the late 13th century on a site often said to be of five acres,[1] though it may have been as little as half that,[2] at the spot in the parish of St. Botolph, outside the medieval walls of the City of London at Aldgate that later, by a corruption of the term minoresses, became known as The Minories, a placename found also in other English towns including Birmingham, Colchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Stratford-upon-Avon.


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  1. ^ David Aers (ed.), Medieval Literature and Historical Inquiry: Essays in Honor of Derek Pearsall, D.S. Brewer, Woodbridge, 2000, p. 88.
  2. ^ Cf. Martha Carlin, Historical Gazetteer of London before the Great Fire. St. Botolph Aldgate: Minories, East Side; the Abbey of St Clare; Holy Trinity Minories, Institute of Historical Research Library, London, 1987), ii(2).12.