The Charterhouse

The Charterhouse stands on ground that was once an emergency mass grave for thousands of victims of the Black Death. In thirteen forty-eight, as the plague overwhelmed the city, a knight named Sir Walter Manny leased this field to provide a final resting place for the dead. Within a few decades, a Carthusian monastery was built here to offer perpetual prayers for those buried beneath the soil. The name itself reflects this history, as Charterhouse is an Anglicized version of the French term for a Carthusian monastery.