Editing Minories

{{Short description|Street in the City of London}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2014}}
[[File:Minories, EC3 - geograph.org.uk - 1758111.jpg|thumb|right|Minories, the street in 2010.]]
[[File:Holy Trinity Minories parish boundary marker.jpg|thumb|Holy Trinity Minories parish boundary marker]]
'''Minories''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|ər|iː|z}} {{respell|MIN|ə|reez}}) is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in the [[Aldgate]] area of the [[City of London]]. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the [[Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate]].

Both are positioned just to the east of, and outside, the [[London Wall|line of London's former defensive walls]], in London's [[East End of London|East End]]. The area of the former administrative unit was outside the City of London (most recently in the [[London 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.

== Toponymy ==
Minories' name is derived from the former [[Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate]], founded in 1294.<ref>"The City Churches" Tabor, M. p128:London; The Swarthmore Press Ltd; 1917.</ref> The ''minoresses'' were nuns, the name being an anglicisation of the latin ''sorores 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.{{refn|group=nb|Also known variously as the Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Aldgate, the House of Minoresses of the Order of St Clare of the Grace of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Minoresses without Aldgate,  St Clare outside Aldgate and the Minories, London.}} The Abbey was a house of the Order of [[Clare of Assisi |St Clare of Assisi]] founded by St Clare, one of the first followers of [[Francis of Assisi|St Francis of Assisi]]. The order was and is the female branch of the Order of St Francis or [[Order of Friars Minor]] known as [[Franciscans]].
[[File:Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God Monastery, Feira de Santana, Brazil (Poor Clares).JPG|thumb|Modern Minoresses at the Immaculate Conception Monastery, Feira de Santana, Brazil]]

As an expression of humility, the male Franciscans had adopted for themselves the Latin term ''fratres 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 as ''sorores minores'' ("lesser or little sisters"), anglicised to "minoresses".

Members of the order were also known as [[Poor 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, including [[Birmingham]], [[Colchester]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne]] and [[Stratford-upon-Avon]].

{{AI1|image=Map of London, 1300.svg|image-width=1000|image-left=-650|image-top=-140|width=350|height=430|float=left|caption= London around 1300: The [[Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate]] (or Abbey of St. Clare) is shown, sited on the road now known as Minories, which runs from [[Aldgate]] to [[Tower Hill]]. The road is immediately outside [[London Wall|London's Wall]] and its defensive ditch.}}

== Governance and history==
[[File:Stepney Civil Parish Map 1870.png|thumb|right|250px|A map showing the civil parish boundaries in 1870.]]
Minories was in the ancient parish of [[St Botolph without Aldgate]] until 1557, when it became [[extra-parochial]].<ref name="visionofbritain">{{cite web|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10052889|website=visionofbritain.org.uk|title=Holy Trinity Minories ExP/CP|access-date=6 March 2019}}</ref>

The area was a papal [[Royal Peculiar|peculiar]] outside the jurisdiction of the English bishops. The abbey was [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolved]] in 1539, the property passing to the Crown. The chapel of the former abbey became the [[Church of Holy Trinity, Minories]], and other buildings were used as an armoury and later as a workhouse. In 1686, the area became part of the [[Liberties of the Tower of London]]. The Minories area historically hosted a large Jewish community.<ref>[https://docs.google.com/viewer?pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESitZ37nDV2geZrr8qzNvIEghbnb2irJpiMPgoqtoMIpa6CeV9HzAKkdvBmSjvq6FbIY7zPQo7tvDHyCcOo3xkVRe8kjjnNHcpIXutjvYp-drE4K37fVCsrKq_fanw1bAowSuKv4&q=cache%3AQLP4WDx-vDEJ%3Awww.jtrails.org.uk%2Fcms_file%2F%3Ffile_id%3D97%20%22The%20Minories%20also%20had%20a%20Jewish%20population%20%22&docid=23ba342e9e7a68a59354c9b438617aee&a=bi&pagenumber=28&w=800 Anglo-Jewish History]</ref>

Minories Holy Trinity, also known as '''Minories Holy Trinity''', was abolished as a civil parish in 1895 and absorbed into the parish of [[Whitechapel (parish)|Whitechapel]]. 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 during [[the Blitz]] in 1940.<ref name="HTM">{{cite web | title=Holy Trinity Minories | website=The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks | date=2014-11-19 | url=https://www.londonparishclerks.com/Parishes-Churches/Individual-Parish-Info/Holy-Trinity-Minories | access-date=2024-09-29}}</ref><ref name="r032">{{cite web | title=Holy Trinity Archives | website=A London Inheritance | date=2019-05-12 | url=https://alondoninheritance.com/tag/holy-trinity/ | access-date=2024-09-29}}</ref>

== The street ==
The modern street named Minories runs north–south with traffic flowing both-ways from [[Aldgate]] to [[Tower Hill]];<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/aldgate-gyratory |title=Aldgate gyratory - Transport for London |access-date=20 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909040603/https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/aldgate-gyratory |archive-date=9 September 2015 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> it is part of the [[A roads in Zone 1 of the Great Britain numbering scheme|A1211 road]] between the [[Barbican Estate|Barbican]] and [[Whitechapel]]. The border between the City and the [[London 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 tube station|Aldgate Underground station]] is at the northern end of Minories, on Aldgate High Street.

=== Roman cemetery ===
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.<ref name="independent">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/roman-eagle-rises-again-in-london-after-2000-years-8911721.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220515/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/roman-eagle-rises-again-in-london-after-2000-years-8911721.html |archive-date=15 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Roman eagle rises again in London after 2,000 years|website=The Independent|date=29 October 2013|access-date=6 March 2019}}</ref><ref>Daily Mail article (not behind a pay wall) which includes further detail and a map</ref>

=== Minories railway station ===
The street gave its name to [[Minories railway station]], built in 1840 as a part of the [[London and Blackwall Railway]] – a {{convert|3.5|mi|km|1|adj=on}} cable railway. The site is now occupied by the [[Docklands Light Railway]] (DLR) station [[Tower Gateway DLR station|Tower Gateway]], which opened in 1987 as the system's western terminus. The DLR was extended westward in 1991 to [[Bank–Monument station|Bank]], leaving Tower Gateway as a secondary alternative terminus.

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=nb}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book
  | last =Pennant
  | first =Thomas
  | title =Some Account of London
  | publisher =J Faulder (digital edition from New York Public Library, 2007)
  | year =1816
  | location =London
  | pages =372
  | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=w28BAAAAYAAJ&q=minories&pg=PA372
  }}
* {{cite book
  | last =Thornbury
  | first =Walter
  | title =Old and New London: Volume 2
  | publisher =Cassel (digital edition from University of London & History of Parliament Trust, 2007)
  | year =1878
  | location =London
  | pages =245–250
  | url =http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45094&strquery=minories
  }}

{{City of London}}
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[[Category:Areas of London]]
[[Category:Districts of the City of London]]
[[Category:Streets in the City of London]]
[[Category:Odonyms referring to religion]]
[[Category:Former civil parishes in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:Bills of mortality parishes]]