X.—On the Topography of the Cistercian Abbey of Tower Hill

Abstract

The ground immediately to the east of the city ditch of London was occupied in medieval times by three important religious foundations, an abbey of Franciscan nuns, another of Cistercian monks, and the great hospital of St. Katherine by the Tower. With the exception of one wall on the site of the first-named house, no trace of any of them survives, though the great church of St. Katherine remained until the last century. The Abbey of St. Mary of Graces, with which we are immediately concerned, was the latest foundation of the Cistercian Order in England; over half a century separates it from the latest of the previous houses, and only a few Carthusian houses, the Bridgettine nunnery of Sion, and some convents of Observant Franciscans are of later date. The house was commonly known as Tower Hill or New Abbey, and is said to have been also called Eastminster in contradistinction to the great Benedictine house in the western suburbs; for this title, however, I have not yet found any ancient authority.