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This page is to collect information about the Tower Hill Precinct.
The area south of what is now Little Somerset Street is Tower Hill Precinct of Portsoken Ward.
This site on which the Abbey of St Clare was built, and which afterwards became the parish of the Holy Trinity Minories, covers about five acres of ground, and was outside the City walls. It was within the City ward of Portsoken.
This includes the area of the Holy Trinity, Minories, which was originally within Tower Hill Precinct . It was removed from Portsoken and became a self governing area. In the 1688 it became a Liberty of the Tower of London, and then when that liberty was abolished, it was transferred to Tower Hamlets.
It was finally reunited with Portsoken ward in 1994.
The area of Little Minories, originally in Tower Hill Precinct of the ward, then severed from it, was reunited with the City in 1987. The Mansell St Estate's Iveagh Court lies on the south side of Haydon Square, and the Guinness Court Buildings lie to the east. St Clare Street still exists.
The precinct extends south of the Old Minories Precinct.
Interestingly, the Tower Liberty still exists,on paper, although it has lost all functions apart from beating the bounds, and apparently a right exists for its residents to worship inside the Tower of London. I will need to find that reference.
Thus the full description of Tower Hill Precinct should be "Tower Hill Precinct incorporating the Liberty of the Little Minories"
This map is from Know Your London The page has some inaccuracies, but has good images. This one shows the location Precinct of the Abbey of St Clare, superimposed onto a modern map. This precinct was originally on land that was within Tower Hill Precinct of the Ward of Portsoken. IThis area later became the Precinct of Holy Trinity Minories, and at some point, it became a self governing parish, before, as mentioned above, becoming a Liberty, and eventually a Liberty of the Tower of London, before being hived off to Tower Hamlets Council, and finally reincorporated into the City of London in 1994. The Guinness Estate lies entirely within this area.
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