On your doorstep – the Museum of the Order of St John, a Tudor home with treasure dating back 1,000 years

Published: 5th November, 2010
by TERRY MESSENGER

THE people of Islington are being invited to discover a “hidden gem on their doorstep” – a mus­eum dedicated to a 1,000-year-old charity in a Tudor building, tucked away in a corner of Clerkenwell.

The Duke of Gloucester this week officially re-opened the Museum of the Order of St John, placing on show paintings, artefacts and other priceless exhibits dating back to the organisation’s foundation in 11th-cen­tury Jerusalem.

The museum has undergone a £3.7million refurbishment designed to attract a new generation of visitors to admire items including a cannon donated by Henry VIII and silverware from medieval Malta.

The museum’s learning and access officer Karen Parker said: “We are particularly keen to attract people from Islington. We want to be seen as a local museum for the borough.

“There are people who’ve lived nearby for years without knowing we are here in this historic building, with these wonderful things on display and with this fascinating story to tell. 

That’s something we want to change.”

The Order was founded around 1080 by Brother Gerard, who built a hospital for Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem. It ­later took on a military role during the Crusades under the title Knights Hospitaller.

The Order is now known for running the St John Ambulance brigade and other health projects in 42 countries in a  peaceful and non-denominational role.

In the 14th century, the Pope Clement V granted the Order property owned by rivals the Knights Templar.

There was a museum previously at the St John’s Gate site, in a side street off Clerkenwell Road, but it was “fusty and old fashioned” and was closed a year ago, explained Ms Parker. 

The refurbished version contains a light and airy gallery with a glass roof attached to the Tudor gatehouse, which houses the Order’s international headquarters.

The gatehouse and the crypt of a neighbouring church are all that remains of Clerk­enwell Priory, most of which fell down after Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. 

The 12th-cen­tury crypt of the Priory Church of St John has re-opened to visitors as part of the refurbishment and work is continuing on an adjacent garden to offer much-needed open space in congested Clerkenwell.

Ms Parker plans to visit schools and community organisations in Islington to invite people to the museum and to stage regular family days where young visitors can engage in art and craft work relating to the his­tory of the Order.

The gallery will be open to the public but the crypt and other areas of the Order’s ancient headquarters will only be available to view by appointment.

Refurbishment work was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the charitable Wellcome and Weston foundations and private benefactors. 

The Order is hoping the new museum will now act as “a recruitment ser­geant” for the St John Amb­u­lance. 

Curators will also be co-operating on promoting the mu­seum with the Knights Templar, whose churches experienced a huge in­crease in visitors after the publication of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. “We used to be enemies but that was 700 years ago,” Ms Par­ker added.

• The Museum of the Order of St John is at St John’s Gate, St John’s Lane, EC1, 020 7324 4005, www.sja.org.uk