Church of Holy Trinity, Minories

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Holy Trinity, Minories

Holy Trinity, Minories was a Church of England parish church on the eastern edge of the City of London, in the area known as the Minories. It began as the chapel of the Abbey of the Minoresses of St Clare, founded in 1293 for nuns of the Order of St Clare. The abbey precinct gave its name to the district. The nunnery was dissolved in 1539, and the chapel became a parish church in the 16th century.

Key facts
- Built around 1300; rebuilt in brick in 1706 after the Great Fire, keeping the medieval north wall. The interior was a plain, single-space room, 63 by 20 feet, with a wooden turret above the porch.
- Dedicatory title: Holy Trinity appears in records from 1563; the church became a parish church in 1593.
- In the late 16th century it was a Puritan stronghold, with preachers such as John Field and Thomas Wilcox.
- It had royal peculiar rights (free from the Bishop of London and could marry without a licence) until 1730.
- Notable monuments included William Legge (1608–1670), his wife Elizabeth Washington, and their son George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth.
- In 1849 a mummified head, reputed to be Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was found in the vault. It was displayed for a time and later buried in St Botolph’s churchyard in 1990.
- The church closed in 1899 under the Union of Benefices Act and united with St Botolph’s Aldgate. The pulpit was moved to All Saints, East Meon in 1906. It then served as a parish room.
- Destroyed by bombing in 1941 during World War II; the medieval north wall survived until the site was cleared in the late 1950s.

Location note
- The church stood just outside the City of London boundary, in a area once part of the Liberties of the Tower of London. The area later became part of Stepney in 1899, and today lies within the City of London.