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No.49 - October 2001 | Contex HOME VISIT REPORT THE LONDON CHARTERHOUSE The entrance to the Charterhouse is via iron gates set in a gothic stone archway. On a chilly morning on Saturday 2nd June, some twenty COLAS members went through these gates to be greeted by our tour guide with the impressive French name of Bernard L Baboulène, one of the forty residents of the Charterhouse (soon to be increased to fifty). The tour began outside the gates in Charterhouse Square. Around 1349, this was mostly an open space called Smooth Field, a name that evolved into Smithfield as the nearby meat market is called. It was just outside the City walls, in fact London Wall ran along Carthusian Street. St Bartholomew’s and St John’s Priory were in the vicinity. At the time, the Bubonic Plague ravaged London and was so devastating that half the population succumbed. London’s graveyards were overflowing and space was desperately required outside the City. It was here that Bernard introduced us to the first of many illustrious characters in the history of the Charterhouse - Sir Walter De Manny, one of Edward III’s "brave knights" who had come from Flanders in 1326 with a bride for the King. In co-operation with the Bishop of London he bought thirteen acres of land from St Bartholomew’s for use as a burial ground, an area known as Spital’s Croft. (Some of this land recently was sold back to Bart’s for their new medical school.) In 1371 he founded a Carthusian monastery on part of the site for the purpose of praying for the souls of the victims of the Black Death. This was the fourth of nine Charterhouses that have been established in England. Bernard pointed out the remaining monastery wall dating from 1405, built with a checkerboard pattern of flint and ragstone. Above the wall, the Tudor style Master’s House was built in 1716. It is this curious juxtaposition of parts of buildings from different centuries that not only gives the Charterhouse its particular charm, but provides the setting for, as Bernard described it, "a brilliant piece of detective work". Charterhouse was badly bombed during the Second World War, but this was to have "a silver lining" since it helped to solve what were thought to be "insoluble puzzles" about the layout of the Priory. After going through the gate, we stopped in the Entrance Court to see a strange-looking structure shaped like a curved pyramid, which Bernard called a "Tin Hat". This is a "cap" fitted on the water tower after it was bombed. The water tower was built in 1614, but there was an earlier tower dating from 1431 when a piped water supply was installed for the monks courtesy of the a nearby Nunnery. It was the discovery of the water ducts six feet underground after WWII bombing that provided evidence of the original layout of the monks’ cell in the Priory. We learnt about over 600 years of the Charterhouse not strictly in chronological order but as we came across each feature and Bernard enthusiastically related its history, made more interesting by the way parts of the original Carthusian Priory have been incorporated into the later more aristocratic building. The story of the sad fate of the monks was to wait as Bernard pointed out the coat of arms above an archway with the date 1611. There were the arms of Thomas Sutton who in 1611 bought Charterhouse from the Earl of Suffolk to establish a charitable hospital and school. Sutton died at the end of 1611, but the foundation he had set up built a hospital for eighty elderly gentlemen, Brothers, and a school for forty boys, gown-boys. Bernard is a present-day Brother of Charterhouse. Our next stop was Preacher’s Court, where stands the new Admiral Ashmore Building, completed in 2000 and home to fourteen brothers. This is a rather plain but pleasant modern red brick building contrasting sharply with the castle-like adjacent buildings. The lawn in front was set up for croquet. Opposite was another new feature, the Millennium Clock which Bernard said was "known to be right sometimes". From Preacher’s Court was an archway leading to Pensioners’ Court which is now the Master’s garden. It contains mulberry trees presented by King James 1. On the wall was the legend ANNO 1571 which was another important date. This was the year that the Duke of Norfolk built a brick vault over the monks’ cloister. Now we were to hear what happened to the monks. Henry VIII broke away from the Church of Rome in order to marry Anne Boleyn. With his Act of Supremacy of 1534 he proclaimed himself head of the Church of England, leading to the dissolution of the monasteries. The resistance was stronger at Charterhouse than elsewhere. The Prior, John Houghton, was executed at Tyburn in typical barbaric medieval fashion – disembowelled while still conscious and his arm nailed to an oak door of the Priory. The following year, nine monks were imprisoned and left to starve. In 1545, as head of Henry VIII’s "Court of Augmentation", Sir Edward North (Lord North) picked the plum property of Charterhouse for himself. North died in 1564 and Charterhouse was bought by the Duke of Norfolk of the Howard family. It was called Howard House until Thomas Sutton took over in 1611. We walked through an archway into Washhouse Court, a charming courtyard with Tudor brickwork dating from 1531. This used to house the Conversé, those who looked after the monks with services such as a bakery and a laundry. There was a dole hatch here where local people queued to receive food. Washhouse Court was accommodation for Brothers until World War II, but is now an infirmary, due to be moved. A narrow passageway then led us from Washouse Court into Master’s Court, with a very impressive building housing the Great Hall, built by Lord North from 1565. Two dominant features of this building are King James I’s coat of arms and a vertical sundial dating from 1628. This courtyard is of particular interest in that excavations after World War II bombing uncovered part of the plan of the Priory. Seely and Paget, the architects commissioned to carry out the restoration, delineated the layout of the original Priory with stone lines on the ground, for example the line of the Little Cloister. (The same theme is continued inside the Great Hall, where brass strips mark the inner wall of the Cloister walk). On entering the Great Hall building, you are greeted by a large portrait of Thomas Sutton on the Great Staircase. Bernard related how Thomas Sutton had become the richest commoner in England by property dealings in the coalfields of the west of England. I have since learnt that no philanthropist came near to such a substantial bequest as Sutton’s with the Charterhouse until Thomas Guy with Guy’s Hospital. Sutton apparently had to go to great lengths to protect his foundation, even strapping his will to his leg! In addition to Sutton’s portrait, there are also portraits of George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham and George II. On the staircase itself are greyhounds’ heads, one of Sutton’s emblems. This staircase replaces the one which was bombed, but the original was the scene of high drama before Sutton’s time. Here, Redolphi, of the Redolphi Plot was arrested in 1571. This plot against Elizabeth I, in collaboration with the Duke of Norfolk, was said to be spectacularly stupid and doomed to failure. The Great Hall itself is really quite stunning, especially considering the wonderful job of restoration after the firebomb of 1941 had gutted the building. The original hammer beam ceiling was built from materials from the Priory Chapel, and was replaced by a barrel ceiling. Remarkably, there is a balcony (on "fluted Corinthian columns" that retained the original burn marks from the bombing) which is detachable, along with wooden panelling, for special occasions. Above the fireplace, are intricate carvings of a cannon, gunpowder barrel and cannon balls commemorating the fact that Sutton used to be "Maser of the Queen’s Ordnance in the North". To the right of the fireplace is a very lifelike portrait of a Mrs Salter which I found to be mesmerising because it is of the type where the eyes follow you everywhere around the room. We next came to the Library, which used to be the monks’ refectory or spaciamentum, and later the gown-boys’ dining room. The fireplace is back-to-back with the fireplace in the Great Hall. Bernard said that the word Library is actually a misnomer, since there are two others elsewhere. The bookcases are full of the books of one of Charterhouse school’s most famous gown-boys, William Makepeace Thackeray. In his novel The Newcomes, Thackeray wrote bout life at Charterhouse and created the fictional character, Colonel Newcome, whom it has been said is the most famous inhabitant of Charterhouse. Around this time, conditions at Charterhouse were said to be declining, and in 1851 Charles Dickens wrote a venomous article in his journal Household Words claiming that the Brothers were kept in workhouse conditions. The Master of Charterhouse wrote a defence, but Dickens, forever the social campaigner, wrote a second article maintaining his position. A report by the Clarendon Commission in 1861 led to the school being moved to Godalming in Surrey in 1872, where it is now. From the Library, we entered the Norfolk Cloister, which used to be the West Cloister of the Priory, and retains the rubble-stone inner wall. This is the cloister that the Duke of Norfolk had covered over in 1571 when creating a tennis court at the end. Half the original cloister was demolished in 1872 by the Merchant Taylors’ Company for a new school building. On the wall was a poster displaying the strict rules of the Carthusian order, for example, "The Carthusians eat neither meat, poultry, nor game". Another poster showed a typical monks’ menu. The most remarkable sight here is part of a monk’s cell, built in 1371 and uncovered during excavations. A small square hatch to the left of the arched cell doorway was where meals were delivered. The monks’ cells were actually "two up, two down" accommodations with even space for a small garden. There were originally twenty-five cells, four of which were endowed by William of Walworth, who cut down Wat Tyler in the original Poll Tax revolt of 1381. Above the Library is the Great Chamber or Throne Room, which has had a long association with royalty, being where both Queen Elizabeth 1 and James 1 held court. James 1, entertained by the Earl of Suffolk, one of the Howard family, dubbed 133 squires as knights here. The room has been miraculously restored after being totally gutted by the1941 firebomb. A small piece of intricately patterned, gilded ceiling had survived in an alcove and was used as a sample for the rest of the ceiling. This room contains tapestries from Belgium dating from 1600. The magnificent fireplace has an overmantle that includes Ionic columns and panels finely painted with religious imagery such as the Last Supper and the Annunciation. Panels containing the arms of Charles 1 and the shield and initials of Thomas Sutton were painted in 1626 by Roland Bucket. The overmantle has been much darkened by fire damage, although Robin Ashton has made a good job restoring it. Leading on from the Great Chamber is the Queen’s Walk, an open terrace that runs above the Norfolk Cloister. This terrace overlooks the space where the gown-boys used to play Cloister Football, a sport that was so rough it had to be stopped. From here you can also see the present-day Chapel where the monks’ Chapter House used to be. This building escaped fire damage because of a stout wooden door. Stacey asked Bernard if ladies would ever be allowed into Charterhouse. He replied that the constitution is so deeply embedded that it would probably take an Act of Parliament to allow it. There is a girls’ Charterhouse School that has been going for twenty years, so it may be a possibility when the girls reached pensionable age. In the ante-room to the Chapel Cloister is a plaster cast of the Three Graces found in the rubble of the badly gutted building. Bernard quizzed us about an animal included in this exquisite design, and, true to form, a COLAS member answered correctly "a snail". Bernard said people usually get that wrong. More ancient stone greeted us in the Chapel Cloister, built by Francis Carter in 1614. Through the window, we could see the gravestone of Sir Walter de Manny (who died in 1373) in Chapel Court, where I saw a squirrel bound across the lawn. Sir Walter de Manny’s coffin was discovered there after the bombing, containing a lead seal or bulla of Pope Clement VII (1242-52), issued to Manny for permission to select a priest to deal with the remission of sins at the hour of death. The coffin also contained tally sticks that were used for transactions on the principle that two halves of a broken stick should match. Bernard mentioned the disastrous fire caused by the accumulation of tally sticks at the Houses of Parliament in 1834. In this cloister is the bust of John Wesley (1703-1791), a famous old boy who was at Charterhouse school from 1714 to 1720. Wesley, the founder of Methodism, is renowned for his outdoor preaching and the saying "The world is my parish". And now for what I found to be the most fascinating point of the entire tour. Bernard related how there used to be a monk guarding the monks’ treasury twenty-four hours a day, but who used to participate in mass by means of what is called a hagioscope or squint – an uninterrupted view of the altar carved through the intervening brickwork. The discovery of the squint, Bernard said, was the most far-reaching piece of detective work, since it showed where the original Chapel was located. The Chapel Cloister contains many more intriguing items. There is a treasure chest from 1600 which could only be opened by three key-holders and a painting showing Carthusian martyrs on the way to execution. But the most dramatic sight I found was the door to the Chapel, half burnt away and thoughtfully kept as a reminder that this saved the Chapel from devastation. We entered the Chapel, consecrated in 1419 but rebuilt in 1512. Frances Carter added a Tuscan Colonnade in 1614. The annex was added by Edward Blore in 1841 to accommodate extra pupils. The most imposing site in the Chapel is the tomb of Thomas Sutton. It took three years to build and contains some incredibly rich adornments such as a bas relieve of someone giving a sermon to the Brothers. Stained glass overlooking the tomb was replaced by plain glass in order to cast more light on it. Bernard mentioned that Sutton House in Hackney is in fact the house next door to the house in which Thomas Sutton actually stayed. We were told how the Puritans banned music, and because of this musical instruments found their way into pubs and taverns leading to the formation of the Music Hall. There is a magnificent organ in the Chapel which was played by Handel on his visits. Bernard gave us a rendition, in a fine tenor voice, of the first line of There is a green hill far away. This hymn was composed by William Horsey (1774-1858), an organist of Charterhouse. This was more or less the end of the visit. Stacey thanked Bernard for the fascinating tour, saying that she would be the first to put her name down on the list for Charterhouse when ladies are allowed to join, presumably to become the first Sister. The Charterhouse has been researched by English Heritage as part of the "Survey of London" project. English Heritage produced the excellent guide booklet available from the Charterhouse for £3.00. Report by Richard Miller |
