Minories (/ˈmɪnəriːz/MIN-ə-reez) is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in theAldgate area of theCity of London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from theAbbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate.
Both are positioned just to the east of, and outside, theline of London's former defensive walls, in London'sEast End. The area of the former administrative unit was outside the City of London (most recently in theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets), with the street partially in the City and partly in Tower Hamlets. Boundary changes in 1994 mean the area of both is now wholly within the City of London.
Minories' name is derived from the formerAbbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate, founded in 1294.[1] Theminoresses were nuns, the name being an anglicisation of the latinsorores minores ("little sisters"), a name they took out of humility.
The Abbey was also known as the Abbey of St Clare, and by a variety of other variations.[nb 1] The Abbey was a house of the Order ofSt Clare of Assisi founded by St Clare, one of the first followers ofSt Francis of Assisi. The order was and is the female branch of the Order of St Francis orOrder of Friars Minor known asFranciscans.
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As an expression of humility, the male Franciscans had adopted for themselves the Latin termfratres minores ("lesser or little brothers"), rendered in English as "friars minor" or just "minors". In a similar way, the female Franciscans were known in Latin assorores minores ("lesser or little sisters"), anglicised to "minoresses".
Members of the order were also known asPoor Clares or Clarisses, and the name St. Clare Street, just off the Minories reflects that. The name Minories can be found in other English towns, includingBirmingham,Colchester,Newcastle upon Tyne andStratford-upon-Avon.
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Minories was in the ancient parish ofSt Botolph without Aldgate until 1557, when it becameextra-parochial.[2]
The area was a papalpeculiar outside the jurisdiction of the English bishops. The abbey wasdissolved in 1539, the property passing to the Crown. The chapel of the former abbey became theChurch of Holy Trinity, Minories, and other buildings were used as an armoury and later as a workhouse. In 1686, the area became part of theLiberties of the Tower of London. The Minories area historically hosted a large Jewish community.[3]
Minories Holy Trinity, also known asMinories Holy Trinity, was abolished as a civil parish in 1895 and absorbed into the parish ofWhitechapel. The parish took its name from Holy Trinity Minories church, just off St Clare St, which was built 1706 on the site of an earlier church but destroyed duringthe Blitz in 1940.[4][5]
The modern street named Minories runs north–south with traffic flowing both-ways fromAldgate toTower Hill;[6] it is part of theA1211 road between theBarbican andWhitechapel. The border between the City and theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets ran haphazardly between Minories and nearby Mansell Street until boundary changes in 1994 relocated the present-day border along Mansell Street, so that Minories is now within the City of London.Aldgate Underground station is at the northern end of Minories, on Aldgate High Street.
In September 2013, a well-preserved Roman statue of an eagle with a snake in its mouth, thought to have been part of a funerary monument, was discovered on a building site on the street, close to its junction with Aldgate High Street. Burials were forbidden within the inhabited area in the Roman period, so the City's defensive wall was ringed by many large cemeteries. The statue is considered to be one of the best examples of Romano-British sculpture in existence.[7][8]
The street gave its name toMinories railway station, built in 1840 as a part of theLondon and Blackwall Railway – a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) cable railway. The site is now occupied by theDocklands Light Railway (DLR) stationTower Gateway, which opened in 1987 as the system's western terminus. The DLR was extended westward in 1991 toBank, leaving Tower Gateway as a secondary alternative terminus.
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51°30′39″N0°04′30″W / 51.5108°N 0.0751°W /51.5108; -0.0751
