Clerkenwell

Published 20 September 2026 · By the Guide to London editorial team · Editor: Terje Moy

Clerkenwell is the wedge of central London between the City and King's Cross, north of Smithfield and west of Old Street. It holds a surviving medieval gatehouse, a Tudor almshouse you can walk into for nothing, an Italian basilica, more architecture and design studios than anywhere else in Britain, and some of the best small restaurants in London. It takes about ten minutes to walk across.

The name comes from a well beside which the parish clerks performed medieval mystery plays. Around it grew two great religious houses: the priory of the Knights Hospitaller, and the Charterhouse, a Carthusian monastery. Both were dissolved in the 1530s, and bits of both are still standing.

After that it became a district of watchmakers, printers, brewers and distillers, then of Italian immigrants, then of political exiles, and finally of designers. Almost none of this is obvious from the street, which is why Clerkenwell rewards a slow walk more than most parts of London.

St John's Gate: a priory gatehouse in the middle of the road

Walk south from Clerkenwell Road down St John's Lane and the street runs straight through a Tudor gatehouse. It was built in 1504 as the south entrance to the priory of the Knights Hospitaller, the order founded to care for pilgrims in Jerusalem, and it has stood there through the dissolution of the priory, a spell as a coffee house run by William Hogarth's father, and use as the office of the Gentleman's Magazine where Samuel Johnson worked.

Inside is the Museum of the Order of St John, which tells the story of the order from the Crusades to the modern St John Ambulance. The galleries and shop are on the ground floor, open Wednesday to Saturday 09:30 to 17:00, and entry is free with donations welcome.

The better part is not on open access. The historic rooms upstairs, the Priory Church and its Norman crypt across the road can only be seen on a guided tour, which needs booking through the museum. The crypt is one of the oldest surviving interiors in London and is worth arranging your day around.

Behind the gate is the Cloister Garden, open Monday to Saturday from 09:30 until dusk and free to enter, except when a private event or children's activity is on. It is a genuinely quiet place to eat a sandwich a hundred metres from Clerkenwell Road. The museum is five minutes' walk from Farringdon station.

The Charterhouse: a monastery, a mansion and an almshouse

North of Smithfield is Charterhouse Square, a cobbled space with a garden in the middle and, on its north side, a long low range of brick and stone that has been continuously occupied since the fourteenth century. It began as a Carthusian monastery, became a Tudor mansion, then a school, and since 1611 has been an almshouse. It still is one: a community of residents, known as Brothers, lives there today, which is why parts of the building are private.

The museum display, the chapel and the shop are free and open Tuesday to Saturday 10:30 to 16:30, with no booking needed. Guided tours of the historic buildings run Tuesday to Saturday at 11:00 and 14:15 and must be booked; they are the only way to see the Great Hall, the Great Chamber and the cloister.

Charterhouse Square itself is open Tuesday to Sunday from early morning until dusk. Under the grass lies a plague pit: excavations for the Crossrail tunnels in 2013 uncovered skeletons from the Black Death of 1348, and the DNA recovered from them was used to identify the bacterium responsible. The square is directly above the Elizabeth line, which is how they came to be dug up; see our guide to the Elizabeth line.

Smithfield: the market, the church and the museum that is coming

Smithfield is technically just over the boundary in the City, but Clerkenwell and Smithfield have always functioned as one place. The great Victorian market halls on Charterhouse Street still trade meat through the night, and they are on borrowed time: the City of London Corporation has confirmed that traders will remain until at least 2028 and has named Albert Island in the Royal Docks as the preferred site for a relocated market.

What is replacing them is a museum. The London Museum, whose old London Wall building closed in December 2022, opens in the Smithfield General Market building on 28 November 2026, with free galleries. Our guide to the London Museum and its sites has the detail.

Across West Smithfield stands the priory church of St Bartholomew the Great, founded in 1123 and the oldest parish church in the City. Its Norman nave, with massive round pillars and a Tudor oriel window looking down into it, is the most atmospheric medieval interior in London. Admission is now free, with donations invited; it opens Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 and on Sundays between services. Step-free access is by the path to the west door from the Tudor gatehouse on West Smithfield.

The smaller St Bartholomew the Less, inside the hospital next door, is open every day from 08:00 to 22:00. Both churches offer guided tours for groups of five or more, arranged through the head verger.

Little Italy and St Peter's

From the 1840s, Clerkenwell was the centre of Italian London, and the area around Back Hill and Warner Street was known as Little Italy. Most of the community has moved to the suburbs, but the institutions remain.

St Peter's Italian Church on Clerkenwell Road opened in 1863 and was the first church in Britain designed in the Roman basilican style, by the Irish architect John Miller Bryson from plans by Francesco Gualandi of Bologna, modelled on the basilica of San Crisogono in Rome. The frontage is set back from the road and easy to miss; the interior, with painted ceilings and side chapels, is not what the street outside prepares you for.

Sunday masses are at 09:30, 11:00 for the solemn mass, 12:30 and 19:00, and are celebrated in Italian. In July the church holds a procession in honour of Our Lady of Mount Carmel through the surrounding streets, with statues carried on floats and a food festival afterwards; it has run since 1883 and is the oldest Italian religious procession in Britain. Our guide to Italian food in London covers the delis and restaurants that grew from this community.

Clerkenwell Green and the radical tradition

Clerkenwell Green is not green and has not been for two centuries: it is a small paved square with a former courthouse at one end. It was London's main open-air meeting place for political demonstrations through the nineteenth century, from the Chartists to the great labour marches.

At 37a Clerkenwell Green stands the Marx Memorial Library, in a building of 1738 that housed a Welsh charity school and later a radical printing press. Lenin edited the Bolshevik newspaper Iskra here in 1902 and 1903, and his small office has been kept. The library holds a research collection on Marxism and labour history and opens to visitors at limited times, so contact it before turning up.

Around the corner, the Sessions House on the Green was the Middlesex county courthouse. This is the corner of Clerkenwell where the street pattern is still medieval, and walking from the Green down Clerkenwell Close past St James's Church takes you along the line of the old nunnery wall.

Design studios, showrooms and one week in May

Clerkenwell has the densest concentration of architecture and design practices in Britain, in converted printing works and warehouses between St John Street and Goswell Road. Most are offices rather than shops, but a large number of furniture and lighting brands keep showrooms here, and many are open to the public during working hours.

Once a year the whole district turns into a festival. Clerkenwell Design Week takes over more than 200 showrooms and a dozen exhibition venues with installations, talks and events; the 2027 edition runs from 25 to 27 May. It is free to attend with registration, and it is the best time to get inside buildings that are otherwise private. The other such opportunity is the Open House Festival in September.

Eating and drinking

Clerkenwell punches far above its size. St John, at 26 St John Street opposite Smithfield, opened in 1994 and did more than any other restaurant to revive British cooking; its bakery and shop operate separately. Exmouth Market, a pedestrianised street at the western edge, has restaurants, a weekday lunchtime street-food market and the Italianate church of Our Most Holy Redeemer.

The area's kitchens change quickly, as everywhere in London: Club Gascon, the Smithfield restaurant that held a star for two decades, has closed, with its operators now running two Provençal restaurants on Chancery Lane. Check that a restaurant you have read about is still trading before you build an evening around it. Our guide to Michelin-starred restaurants in London explains how to find the current list.

For drinking, the old distilling and brewing trade left a good stock of Victorian pubs on St John Street, Turnmill Street and around the Green, and several coffee roasters have arrived with the designers; see coffee in London and traditional British food.

A walking route, and getting there

Farringdon station is the obvious arrival point, now served by the Elizabeth line, Thameslink and three Underground lines, which makes Clerkenwell one of the best-connected districts in London. Barbican and Angel are each about ten minutes' walk from the middle.

A good circuit, taking about two hours with stops: start at Farringdon, walk up to St John's Gate, cut east to Charterhouse Square, cross Charterhouse Street to Smithfield and St Bartholomew the Great, come back north to Clerkenwell Green, west along Clerkenwell Road past St Peter's, and finish at Exmouth Market.

From there you are ten minutes from Islington to the north, fifteen from King's Cross to the north-west, and about the same from the City and St Paul's to the south. Buses through the area include the 55 and 243 along Clerkenwell Road, the 153 on St John Street and the 40, 63 and 341 on Farringdon Road.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Museum of the Order of St John free?

Yes. The galleries and shop at St John's Gate are free and open Wednesday to Saturday from 09:30 to 17:00, and the Cloister Garden is free Monday to Saturday until dusk. The historic rooms, Priory Church and crypt can only be seen on a guided tour, which is booked separately.

Can you go inside the Charterhouse?

Partly, for nothing. The museum display, chapel and shop are free, open Tuesday to Saturday 10:30 to 16:30, with no booking. The Great Hall, Great Chamber and cloister are only on guided tours, which run Tuesday to Saturday at 11:00 and 14:15 and must be booked in advance.

Does St Bartholomew the Great charge admission?

No. Entry to both St Bartholomew the Great and St Bartholomew the Less is free, with donations invited; the churches receive no funding from the Church of England or the government. The Great is open Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 17:00 and on Sundays between services.

When does the new London Museum open at Smithfield?

28 November 2026, in the Smithfield General Market building, with free galleries. The museum's former London Wall site closed in December 2022, and until Smithfield opens its Docklands branch is the only London Museum site operating.

When is Clerkenwell Design Week?

The 2027 festival runs from 25 to 27 May. It covers more than 200 showrooms and a dozen exhibition venues across the district, and it is the easiest time of year to get inside the studios and showrooms that are normally closed to the public.

Sources

• Museum of the Order of St John - planning your visit (checked September 2026)
• The Charterhouse - opening hours, tours and chapel services (checked September 2026)
• St Bartholomew the Great - visiting times, free admission and access (checked September 2026)
• City of London Corporation - the future of Smithfield and Billingsgate (checked September 2026)
• London Museum - Smithfield opening, 28 November 2026 (checked September 2026)
• St Peter's Italian Church - history and mass times (checked September 2026)
• Clerkenwell Design Week - 2027 dates (checked September 2026)
• Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green (checked September 2026)