In 1536 Henry VIII, with the aid of his advisor Thomas Cromwell, induced Parliament to pass a law doing away with one hundred of the smaller monasteries. This was followed in 1540 by a general dissolution of all monastic houses. Considering the concentration of these monastic buildings in London, the effect, according to Walter Besant, was ‘Ruins everywhere! Ruins of cloisters, halls, dormitories, courts, and chapels, and churches. Ruins of carved altar-pieces, canopies, statues, painted windows, and graven fonts’.
What actually happened was that the properties were sold off by the crown for whatever could be got for them, and the buildings themselves were either demolished or stripped to the walls and used for other purposes. In a very few cases, notably that of the Nunnery of St Helen’s and the Priory of St Bartholomew’s, part of the original structures became parish churches and thus retained something of their medieval appearance.
What became of the sites where once could be seen the splendours of medieval Christendom, noble monuments of lords and ladies, rich tapestries, splendid carvings, brilliant stained glass, walls covered with paintings and frescoes—has been partly explained elsewhere. Here are a few more instances:
- The church of the Holy Trinity Priory was sold in its entirety for sixpence a cartload.
- The Crutched Friar’s church was made into a carpenter’s shop and tennis court.
- The hall of the abbey of the Blackfriars was made into a storehouse for ‘properties’ of pageants. A playhouse, the famous Blackfriars Theatre, was erected among the ruins by Shakespeare and his friends.
- Charterhouse, of the Carthusian Order, became a private residence and eventually a pensioners’ home and charity school. The church of the Knights Hospitaller was blown up with gunpowder and left a ruin. It was reconstructed and used for a while as a Presbyterian church, later attacked by a mob and burned. The original crypt, however, remains today.