We are indebted to William Fitz-Stephens, writing in the days of Henry II in the twelfth century, for the information that in his days there existed in London 126 parish churches and 13 churches attached to monasteries. By the time of the Reformation the number of religious institutions and properties had grown to the following:
Eight abbies (monastic communities under the rule of an abbot):
- The Black Friars (Dominicans), founded in 1221. Their property was located between Ludgate and the river; today Blackfriars Bridge passes the site.
- The Grey Friars (Franciscans), who occupied a site on Newgate Street off Warwick Lane, later the famous ‘Blue Coat’ school of Christ’s Hospital. The war ruins of Christ Church, Newgate Street, occupy the site today.
- The Augustinian or ‘Austin’ Friars, founded in 1253, who had their house on Old Broad Street leading off Threadneedle Street. Their church was assigned by Edward VI in 1550 to Protestant refugees from Europe, later becoming the Dutch Church. The original building was destroyed in the bombing and a new Dutch Church was erected in 1950–54. But the area is still known as ‘Austin Friars’. “ The White Friars (Carmelites), founded in 1241, who had a house east of the Temple which was destroyed in 1537.
- The Crutched Friars (that is, they wore a cross sewn on the backs of their cloaks) who had their abbey near St Olave’s, Hart Street. The Carthusian Order, who occupied what is now the Charterhouse. The Cistercians, whose Abbey of St Mary Graces was at East Smithfield, an open area east of the Tower. It was destroyed in the Dissolution.
- The Brethren de Sacca or ‘Bonhommes’, a small community under Augustinian rule located in Old Jewry. It, too, disappeared in the Dissolution.
- The very early Benedictine Abbey of St Peter is not mentioned by Fitz-Stephens as it was at Westminster, not part of London in medieval times.
Then there were five priories; that is, communities under the rule of a prior rather than an abbot, but subject to the abbot of another community:
- The Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, whose story is told elsewhere.
- The Priory of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, which was located just north of St Katharine Creechurch on Leadenhall Street.
- The Priory of St Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, part of whose church remains today as the parish church of St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield.
- The Priory of St Mary Overy, Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames where Southwark Cathedral now stands.
Next, there were four nunneries:
- The Priory of the Nuns of St Helen, off Bishopsgate Street where the Church of St Helen’s stands today.
- The Benedictine Priory of St John the Baptist, Holywell, which was north of the City in Shoreditch.
- The Abbey of the Nuns of St Clare (or ‘Poor Clares’), also called the Abbey of the Minoresses, which was located between Aldgate Street and Tower Hill.
- The Benedictine Nunnery of St Mary, Clerkenwell, which lay north of the Priory of St John of Jerusalem.
Of colleges, or collegium, communities of religious men not under the rule of an abbot or prior, there were five:
- St Martin le Grand, near Aldersgate.
- St Thomas of Acon (or Acre), which was near Guildhall.
- The College of ‘St Esprit and Mary’ in the Vintry Ward. College Street off Upper Thames Street derives its name thus. This was founded by the famous Richard Wittington.
- The College of St Michael, Crooked Lane, just north of London Bridge.
- Corpus Christi, which was located by the old church of St Lawrence Pountney, between Cannon Street and the river.
There were also eight hospitals, most of which were outside the city walls because of well-justified fear of contagion:
- St Giles In the Fields, a leprasarium near Tottenham Court Road where the present church of St Giles In the Fields stands.
- St James Hospital for female lepers, where St James Palace is today.
- St Mary of Rounceval, by the present day Charing Cross.
- The Papey was a hospice for infirm priests, located in Bevis Marks. St Bartholomew the Less, at Smithfield where St Bartholomew’s Hospital stands today.
- The Lock Spital, later the Hospital of St Mary Spital for lepers, north of Bishopsgate.
- The Hospital of St Katharine’s By the Tower, now St Katharine’s Docks.
- Elsing Spital, a hospital for a hundred blind men, located near Cripplegate.
Later the famous Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem (nicknamed Bedlam) for the insane was founded just outside the walls near Bishopsgate. Finally there were the town estates of the various bishops, who as members of the House of Lords needed to spend part of the year in London. A remnant of one of these, the chapel of the former estate of the Bishops of Ely located just north of Holborn Circus, is now the Catholic Chapel of St Etheldreda.