Charterhouse Square

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Charterhouse Hospital in around 1770.

Tudor buildings of Charterhouse.

View of Charterhouse Square campus, Queen Mary, University of London.

Charterhouse Square is a historic square in Smithfield, central London (postal district EC1), England.

The Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery founded in 1371 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.

Charterhouse was dissolved as a monastery in 1537. Elizabeth I prepared for her coronation here. In 1603, James I held court here on his arrivial in London. In 1611, Thomas Sutton endowed a hospital on the site of the Charterhouse, to be named after King James. He bequeathed money to support an almshouse/hospital, chapel and school. The Charterhouse buildings were used by Charterhouse School, now a prestigeous public school, until 1872 when the school moved to Godalming in Surrey south-west of London, and then the Merchant Taylors' School until 1933. The buildings now form part of St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School.

Queen Mary, University of London's Charterhouse Square campus is also situated to the north of the square. This includes student accommodation and departments of the university. Facilities include Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, and the Department of Radiography of City University, London.

Florin Court is a residential building in the Art Deco style on the eastern side of the square, built in 1936 by Guy Morgan and Partners. It was used as the fictional residence of Hercule Poirot, Whitehaven Mansions, in the 1980s TV series based on Agatha Christie's crime novels. The building has a curved facade, roof garden and basement swimming pool.

Charterhouse Square School is at 40 Charterhouse Square.

Smithfield Market is to the south-west along Charterhouse Street.

The nearest underground station is the Barbican tube station to the south-east.

Coordinates: 51°31′15.35″N, 0°05′55.35″W