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Order of St John Museum |
£1.5m plans to transform ‘hidden treasure’ museum
A CLERKENWELL museum that preserves an ancient order’s unique blend of religious, military and medical history is about to be given a major boost.
The Museum of the Order of St John, off Clerkenwell Road, is to receive a £1,533,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant along with £128,800 from the fund for improvement work.
The museum is housed in three listed buildings where the once-great Priory of the Order of St John of Jerusalem stood.
The order, best known today through the work of St John Ambulance, was founded in Jerusalem around 1070.
Some 70 years later its English headquarters were established on a 10-acre site in Clerkenwell.
Although attracting about 14,000 visitors a year, the museum is still relatively little known, despite extensive collections which include paintings and illuminated manuscripts, rare armour worn by the Knights of St John, a bronze cannon given by Henry VIII, ancient coins, decorative furniture, ceramics, metalwork, jewellery, textiles, medals and Islamic artefacts.
It is housed in Grade I-listed St John’s Gate, built in 1504, an adjoining Grade II-listed building designed by Norman Shaw, and the nearby Grade I-listed Priory Church with its 12th century crypt.
Priory librarian Dr Alan Borg said: “The Museum of the Order of St John is one of the great hidden treasures of London, tracing the continuous history of a charity that dates back over 900 years.
“Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund we are now going to ‘open the gate’ where all can see our amazing historical collections and follow the story of St John Ambulance up to the present day.”
The plan is to redesign the ground floor of the museum to provide a new entrance area, increase exhibition space and fit out galleries with better information for visitors, as well as to develop a learning space and new exhibition area in Priory Church.
A collections research centre will be established and a “pavement museum” created which will link the different parts of the museum across St John’s Square.
The museum tells the story of the three distinct roles of the order, whose members were known as the Knights Hospitaller or the Knights of Malta, with its unique blend of religion, military might during and after the Crusades, and the care of the sick.
Heritage Lottery Fund London manager Sue Bowers added: “The Order of St John has a fascinating tale to tell and this project provides it with the opportunity to engage many more people, especially children, in this extraordinary story.”
The planned restoration will reverse alterations made to the buildings over time and now considered architecturally inappropriate. |
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