Charterhouse Square
by Renee Blodgett on July 18, 2009 at 11:51 am
Part of our stay during our recent London trip was at the Malmaison Hotel, which is around the corner from the Barbicon tube on the circle line. Despite the fact that I lived in London and had countless subsequent visits, it’s an area where I never spent that much time.
Malmaison is in the corner of a quaint courtyard called Charterhouse Square.
Here’s a little background which will make all Americans feel incredibly young regardless of where they grew up in the states.
The Charterhouse is on the site of a former Carthusian monastery founded in 1371, by Walter de Manny, on what is now the north side of the square. It was established near a 1348 plague pit, located in the square, which formed the largest mass grave in London during the Black Death when around half the population died of the plague.
Tens of thousands of bodies were buried here. The name is derived as an Anglicization of La Grande Chartreuse, whose order founded the monastery.
It’s no wonder we look at the world differently than our Anglican pals on the other side of the pond.
