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THE LATE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY CHAPTER HOUSE OF BLACK FRIARS, LONDON

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

Nick Holder  and
Mark Samuel
Nick Holder
Affiliation:
25 Monmouth Street, Topsham, Exeter, EX3 0AJ, UK. Email: n.holder@exeter.ac.uk
Mark Samuel
Affiliation:
15 Grove Road, Ramsgate, CT11 9SH, UK. Email: twoarches@aol.com
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Abstract

An early rescue excavation in 1900 revealed part of a medieval building of the Dominican friary of Black Friars, London. Further archaeological work in the twentieth century revealed other parts of the building. Here, the authors consider the archaeological and architectural evidence, including a preserved in situ window and two relocated ex situ architectural features. Alfred Clapham suggested in a 1912 article in Archaeologia that the building was the Dominican provincial prior’s house; the present authors instead identify the ground-floor chamber as the late thirteenth-century chapter house. Construction of the friary (the second London Black Friars) began in 1278 or 1279 and the chapter house, funded by a will of 1281, was probably built later in the 1280s. The lower chamber was a well-lit, five-bay undercroft with a quadripartite vault rising from Reigate stone responds and Purbeck marble columns: this was probably the chapter house chamber. The hall-like chamber over was approximately 57ft by 28ft (17.3m × 8.5m) and may have been the library. The building may be the work of Robert of Beverley, the king’s master mason from 1260, perhaps in conjunction with Michael of Canterbury. French royal works of the thirteenth century (such as the lower chapel of the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris) may have served as inspiration.

Keywords

monastic architecturefriarsfriarymendicantsfloor tilesAutoCADDecorated style
Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 100 , September 2020 , pp. 213 - 239
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London, 2020

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References

Bibliography

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CCR, Calendar of the Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 61 vols, HMSO, London, 1892–1975Google Scholar
CPR, Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 36 vols, various publishers, 1893–Google Scholar
Douai Abbey Archive, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Dominican archive/Houses/London: records of St Dominic’s Priory, LondonGoogle Scholar
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, USA, Loseley mss [consulted at Surrey History Centre, Woking, Surrey, microfilm Z/407/2 and /3]Google Scholar
LAA, archaeological site records for FRI88, IDY93Google Scholar
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LMA, A/LSC, records of the London Survey CommitteeGoogle Scholar
LMA, COLLAGE, collection of historic imagesGoogle Scholar
LMA, Husting Rolls [consulted as microfilm X109/400]Google Scholar
Museum of London, London, accession number C624: watercolour of Philip Norman, ‘Arch of conventual buildings [in Blackfriars]’Google Scholar
TNA, C 66, patent rollsGoogle Scholar
TNA, DL 27, Duchy of Lancaster deeds, series LSGoogle Scholar
TNA, E 315, Court of Augmentations, miscellaneous booksGoogle Scholar
TNA, E 318, Court of Augmentations, particulars for grantsGoogle Scholar
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings, D.1291–1907: George Thow Smith drawing of the remains exposed at Ireland Yard in 1900Google Scholar
Besant, W 1906. Medieval London, 2 vols, Black, London Google Scholar
Betts, I 2017. ‘Floor tiles and building materials from the London friaries’ in Holder 2017, 227–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, A W 1912. ‘On the topography of the Dominican Priory of London’, Archaeologia, 63, 57–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Finance, L 2001. The Sainte-Chapelle: Palais de la Cité, Éditions du Patrimoine, Paris Google Scholar
Delon, M 2000. The Conciergerie: Palais de la Cité, Éditions du Patrimoine, Paris Google Scholar
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Gumbley, W 1955. Obituary Notices of the English Dominicans, 1555–1952, Blackfriars Publications, London Google Scholar
Harvey, J H 1987. English Mediaeval Architects: a biographical dictionary down to 1550, Sutton, GloucesterGoogle Scholar
Holder, N 2011. ‘The medieval friaries of London: a topographic and archaeological history, before and after the Dissolution’, unpublished PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Holder, N (ed) 2017. The Friaries of Medieval London: from foundation to Dissolution, Boydell, Woodbridge Google Scholar
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Morris, R K 1979. ‘The development of later Gothic mouldings in England, c 1250–1400: part ii’ , Architect Hist, 22, 1–4810.2307/1568368CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Palmer, R 1889. ‘The Black Friars of London’, Merry England, 12, 428–42Google Scholar
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Samuel, M W, 2007a. ‘Architectural reconstruction, architectural fragments and petrological analysis’, in Bowsher, D, Dyson, T, Holder, N and Howell, I (eds), The London Guildhall: an archaeological history of a neighbourhood from early medieval to modern times, 2 vols, ii, 417–25, MoLAS Monogr 36, London Google Scholar
Samuel, M W 2007b. ‘The moulded stone’, in Saxby, D and Miller, P (eds), The Augustinian Priory of St Mary, Merton, 176–91, MoLAS Monogr 34, London Google Scholar
Schofield, J 1993. The Building of London from the Conquest to the Great Fire, British Museum, London Google Scholar
Seeley, D, Phillpotts, C and Samuel, M W 2006. Winchester Palace: excavations at the Southwark residence of the bishops of Winchester, MoLAS Monogr 31, London Google Scholar
Skeat, W W (ed) 1867. Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede, to which is appended God Spede the Plough, Early English Text Soc 30 and 31, Paul, London Google Scholar
Smith, I 1966. Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Playhouse: its history and its design, Owen, London Google Scholar
Steer, C 2010. ‘Royal and noble commemoration in the mendicant houses of London, c 1240–1540’, in Barron, C M and Burgess, C (eds), Memory and Commemoration in Medieval England, 117–42, Harlaxton Med Stud 20, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar
Williams, E 1927. Early Holborn and the Legal Quarter of London: a topographical survey of the beginnings of the district known as Holborn and of the Inns of Court and of Chancery, 2 vols, Sweet & Maxwell, London Google Scholar
Wilson, C 1976. ‘The original design of the Guildhall of the City of London’, JBAA, 129, 1–14Google Scholar
Wilson, C 2017. ‘The shrine of St Erkenwald on paper and in reality’, in Powell, S (ed), Saints and Cults in Medieval England, 217–36, Harlaxton Med Stud 27, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar
British Newspaper Archive, scans of Cambridge Daily News and Croydon Advertiser, online, http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ (accessed 21 May 2020)Google Scholar
CCR, Calendar of the Close Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 61 vols, HMSO, London, 1892–1975Google Scholar
CPR, Calendar of Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 36 vols, various publishers, 1893–Google Scholar
Douai Abbey Archive, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Dominican archive/Houses/London: records of St Dominic’s Priory, LondonGoogle Scholar
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, USA, Loseley mss [consulted at Surrey History Centre, Woking, Surrey, microfilm Z/407/2 and /3]Google Scholar
LAA, archaeological site records for FRI88, IDY93Google Scholar
LAA, ‘Post Roman Gazetteer’, site record for PRG407Google Scholar
LMA, A/LSC, records of the London Survey CommitteeGoogle Scholar
LMA, COLLAGE, collection of historic imagesGoogle Scholar
LMA, Husting Rolls [consulted as microfilm X109/400]Google Scholar
Museum of London, London, accession number C624: watercolour of Philip Norman, ‘Arch of conventual buildings [in Blackfriars]’Google Scholar
TNA, C 66, patent rollsGoogle Scholar
TNA, DL 27, Duchy of Lancaster deeds, series LSGoogle Scholar
TNA, E 315, Court of Augmentations, miscellaneous booksGoogle Scholar
TNA, E 318, Court of Augmentations, particulars for grantsGoogle Scholar
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings, D.1291–1907: George Thow Smith drawing of the remains exposed at Ireland Yard in 1900Google Scholar
Besant, W 1906. Medieval London, 2 vols, Black, London Google Scholar
Betts, I 2017. ‘Floor tiles and building materials from the London friaries’ in Holder 2017, 227–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, A W 1912. ‘On the topography of the Dominican Priory of London’, Archaeologia, 63, 57–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Finance, L 2001. The Sainte-Chapelle: Palais de la Cité, Éditions du Patrimoine, Paris Google Scholar
Delon, M 2000. The Conciergerie: Palais de la Cité, Éditions du Patrimoine, Paris Google Scholar
Dictionary of Scottish Architects, 1660–1980, online database, http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/ (accessed 21 May 2020)Google Scholar
Felstead, A, Franklin, J and Pinfield, L 1993. Dictionary of British Architects, 1834–1900, RIBA and Mansell, London Google Scholar
Feuillerat, A (ed) 1913. Blackfriars Records, Malone Society, Oxford Google Scholar
Gerhold, D 2016. London Plotted: plans of London buildings c 1450–1720, Lond Topogr Soc publ 178, London Topographical Society, London Google Scholar
Gumbley, W 1955. Obituary Notices of the English Dominicans, 1555–1952, Blackfriars Publications, London Google Scholar
Harvey, J H 1987. English Mediaeval Architects: a biographical dictionary down to 1550, Sutton, GloucesterGoogle Scholar
Holder, N 2011. ‘The medieval friaries of London: a topographic and archaeological history, before and after the Dissolution’, unpublished PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of LondonGoogle Scholar
Holder, N (ed) 2017. The Friaries of Medieval London: from foundation to Dissolution, Boydell, Woodbridge Google Scholar
London Borough of Croydon 2008. ‘Local list of historic parks and gardens’, online, https://www.croydon.gov.uk/sites/default/files/articles/downloads/parks-and-gardens-part2.pdf (accessed 21 May 2020)Google Scholar
Martin, G H and Highfield, J R L 1997. A History of Merton College, Oxford, Oxford University Press Google Scholar
Martin, W and Toy, S 1928. ‘The Black Friars in London: a chapter in national history’, Trans London Middlesex Archaeol Soc, 5(new ser), 353–79Google Scholar
Morris, R K 1979. ‘The development of later Gothic mouldings in England, c 1250–1400: part ii’ , Architect Hist, 22, 1–4810.2307/1568368CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norman, P 1900. ‘Mediaeval remains found at Blackfriars, May 1900’, Ann Rec Lond Topogr Soc, 1, 1–9 [later London Topographical Record]Google Scholar
Norman, P 1905. London Vanished and Vanishing, Black, London Google Scholar
Palmer, R 1889. ‘The Black Friars of London’, Merry England, 12, 428–42Google Scholar
Palmer, R 1890. ‘The Black Friars of London’, Merry England, 13, 33–43, 116–32, 191–205, 266–88, 354–66 [several parts]Google Scholar
Röhrkasten, J 2004. The Mendicant Houses of Medieval London, 1221–1539, Vita Regularis 21, Verlag, Münster Google Scholar
Samuel, M W 1993. ‘St Anne’s Churchyard, Ireland Yard, London EC4: an archaeological watching brief’, unpublished MoLAS reportGoogle Scholar
Samuel, M W, 2007a. ‘Architectural reconstruction, architectural fragments and petrological analysis’, in Bowsher, D, Dyson, T, Holder, N and Howell, I (eds), The London Guildhall: an archaeological history of a neighbourhood from early medieval to modern times, 2 vols, ii, 417–25, MoLAS Monogr 36, London Google Scholar
Samuel, M W 2007b. ‘The moulded stone’, in Saxby, D and Miller, P (eds), The Augustinian Priory of St Mary, Merton, 176–91, MoLAS Monogr 34, London Google Scholar
Schofield, J 1993. The Building of London from the Conquest to the Great Fire, British Museum, London Google Scholar
Seeley, D, Phillpotts, C and Samuel, M W 2006. Winchester Palace: excavations at the Southwark residence of the bishops of Winchester, MoLAS Monogr 31, London Google Scholar
Skeat, W W (ed) 1867. Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede, to which is appended God Spede the Plough, Early English Text Soc 30 and 31, Paul, London Google Scholar
Smith, I 1966. Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Playhouse: its history and its design, Owen, London Google Scholar
Steer, C 2010. ‘Royal and noble commemoration in the mendicant houses of London, c 1240–1540’, in Barron, C M and Burgess, C (eds), Memory and Commemoration in Medieval England, 117–42, Harlaxton Med Stud 20, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar
Williams, E 1927. Early Holborn and the Legal Quarter of London: a topographical survey of the beginnings of the district known as Holborn and of the Inns of Court and of Chancery, 2 vols, Sweet & Maxwell, London Google Scholar
Wilson, C 1976. ‘The original design of the Guildhall of the City of London’, JBAA, 129, 1–14Google Scholar
Wilson, C 2017. ‘The shrine of St Erkenwald on paper and in reality’, in Powell, S (ed), Saints and Cults in Medieval England, 217–36, Harlaxton Med Stud 27, Shaun Tyas, Donington Google Scholar