Blackfriars, London

• 1. Introduction

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  Blackfriars, in the south-west corner of the City of London, takes its name from a piece of clothing. Records from 1317 already use it, spelled in many different ways. The black in the name points to the outer garment, called a cappa, worn by Dominican friars. The friar part comes from a word for brother, and the French frère has the same root. A name that old raises questions. Why did these brothers settle on this stretch of riverbank? Who moved in after they were gone? And what of their world can still be found among the stations, offices and hotels that now crowd the district?

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• 2. The Priory Precinct

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  The Dominicans founded their priory in the 1220s, just west of Holborn bridge at the top of Shoe Lane. That spot is modern Holborn Circus. In about 1276 the friars moved a few hundred metres south, to land between the tidal Thames and the west side of Ludgate Hill. The hill is only a modest rise, yet it is the highest ground in the city proper.

  Edward I gave permission to rebuild London's city wall against the Fleet brook and Ludgate Hill. The wall ran north and west of the friars' precinct, which tied the priory firmly into the city's defences.

  The site then hosted great occasions of state. Parliament met there, and so did the Privy Council. Emperor Charles V paid a state visit in 1522. Seven years after that, the priory staged the divorce hearing of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII.

  The priory was dissolved by legal process in 1538, as part of Henry's dissolution of the monasteries. Henry's sixth and final wife, Katherine Parr, was born in a parish associated with the priory.

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• 3. Buried Among the Friars

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  Elizabeth de Badlesmere, Countess of Northampton, is one of the people recorded as buried at Blackfriars. The list also includes Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent.

  Three more names appear beside theirs. Edward Hastings, 2nd Baron Hastings, is one. Robert St. Lawrence, 3rd Baron Howth, is another. John Cornwall, 1st Baron Fanhope, completes the list. Together they show that the precinct drew people of high rank, in life and in death.

  The buildings that held these graves did not stay in religious hands. Some of them were leased out to entrepreneurs with a very different purpose.

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• 4. Stage and Apothecaries

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  A group of entrepreneurs leased some of the former priory buildings and turned them into the Blackfriars Theatre. It stood near Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which was almost directly across the river.

  In 1632 the Society of Apothecaries, a livery company, bought the late medieval guesthouse on the site. The society converted it into its base. The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed that building, but the society rebuilt it.

  That rebuilt home is today's Apothecaries' Hall. It stands due north of Blackfriars station, a short walk from the place where the theatre once played.

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• 5. Puddle Dock and the Mudbank

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  Puddle Dock was a formerly narrow street that, until the early 20th century, linked the local wharves to the main street. The wharves lay in the south-east of modern Blackfriars, beside a substantial mudbank. Piers and mooring posts lined it, and it had to be dredged often.

  Wheatsheaf Wharf was one of these landing places. Paul's Stairs, east of the modern floating pier, still leads down to the foreshore. That strip of shore has been much narrowed over time. It is wholly tidal, which means the river covers it for much of the tidal cycle.

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• 6. Station and Bridges

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  Blackfriars station sits at the very centre of the district, on a large, fully built-up roundabout. Southwest of it is Blackfriars Bridge, and to the south runs the railway bridge.

  The present station opened in 1885 under the name St Pauls, which it kept for some decades. Its forerunner, Blackfriars Bridge railway station, stood south of the river and closed to passengers that same year. No major trace of it remains.

  On the south bank, Blackfriars Road in Bankside, Southwark, is a notably long road and a main approach to the road bridge. The skyscraper One Blackfriars rises near its northern end.

  North-west of the small gyratory around the station complex stands the Crowne Plaza London - The City hotel. It was converted from the 1916 headquarters of the papermakers Spicers Brothers. It faces a few mature trees on a small hard-paved square. Southeast of the roundabout, Blackfriars Millennium Pier serves river-bus services run by London River Services.

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• 7. Embankment Landmarks

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  The Victoria Embankment runs along the north bank of the river, west from Blackfriars as far as Westminster Bridge. Unilever House, a large Art Deco building, is among its notable landmarks.

  Facing the station's gyratory is the Black Friar pub, an Art Nouveau building. Its name keeps the old Dominican cloak in view on a busy corner.

  Further around the circle stand the Bank of New York Mellon building and the Mermaid Theatre. The Mermaid Theatre is now a conference centre.

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• 8. Streets on Screen

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  The Blitz, which lasted from 1940 to 1945, heavily bombed the City. Yet one or two elaborate streets of Blackfriars were well repaired afterwards. Their architecture is genuinely Victorian or Georgian.

  Film and television crews often use these streets as sets. Productions based on Sherlock Holmes and David Copperfield are among those filmed there.

  The district sits among well-known neighbours. Upstream on the north bank lie Temple and Fleet Street, with Ludgate Hill, St Paul's and Mansion House close by. Across the water, the south bank holds Bankside and the Gallery.

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