St. Mary Spital
St. Mary Spital was an Augustinian Priory and
Hospital on the east side of Bishopsgate Street.
The Priory dates from 1197. The old precinct of St.
Mary Spital is visible on the Agas map. The church itself was
demolished after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. By the time the
Agas map was drawn, many of the priory buildings had been removed and the area
appears sparse. Only the chapel of St. Edmund and Mary
Magdalen and the Pulpit Cross remained. According to Stow, the priory
held lands from
Berwards lane [also called Hog Lane] toward the South, and extendeth in breadth to the parish of Saint Leonard of Soresditch towards the North, and in length, from the Kings streete [possibly Bishopsgate Street] on the west to the Bishops of Londons field, called Lollesworth on the East(Stow). In addition, the priory owned and leased the land occupied by the Tower of London Artillery Yard (Harben). The priory continued its mission until the Dissolution of the Monasteries; when it surrendered it had "180. beds well furnished, for receipt of the poore" (Stow).
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References
- Harben, Henry. A Dictionary of London. London: Henry Jenkins, 1918. Print. Rpt. British History Online. Web. [Harben’s Dictionary is organized alphabetically. One can also do keyword searches for words that occur within entries.
- Stow, John. A Survey of London. Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Ed. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. Print. Rpt. British History Online. Web. Subscr. [Kingsford edition, courtesy of The Centre for Metropolitan History. Articles written 2011 or later cite from this searchable transcription. In the in-text parenthetical reference (Stow; BHO), click on BHO to go directly to the page containing the quotation or source.]
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