St John's Gate was built in 1504 as an entrance to the Clerkenwell Priory of the Knights of Saint John. Today a museum traces the history of the order to the current of St John Ambulance. William Hogarth lived in the gate, and it and provided a printing workplace for Samuel Johnson.
Clerkenwell 101
49 St John’s Gate survives in the rebuilt form of the Priory Gate, and was the main entrance to the walled inner precinct of the original medieval Priory of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem(better known as the Knights Hospitallers), an order founded in Jerusalem in 1099. The current gate was rebuilt in 1504, but it is thought that this gate replaced an even older one, which was built in the 1160s. Today it is home to the +Museum of the Order of St John
50 In 1704, William Hogarth’s father Richard ran a coffee house in the Gatehouse where only Latin was allowed to be spoken. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t catch on and went bust in 1707, along with Hogarth père who ended up in a debtor’s prison.
51 From the mid-1700s up until the 1870s, the Gatehouse served as a tavern, known as the Old Gate, the St John’s Gate Tavern, the Jerusalem Tavern(a favourite of Charles Dickens) or Old Jerusalem Tavern. A fireplace from the original tavern still survives in the gate.
52 The Venerable Order of St John went on to found the modern day St John Ambulance Association. This was established in 1877 to teach and practice First Aid internationally to the public. Their distinctive black and white insignia echoes the design that was used by the original Knights Hospitallers. The Ambulance Association’s office is at 27 St John’s Lane.
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