Place Name
Named from a monastery of Carmelites (the Friars of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), otherwise known, from their white robes, as the White Friars which was originally founded, sometime in the 12thCentury, on Mount Carmel in Israel in the Crusader States. They came to England sometime around 1241 and having settled first in Kent they became so successful they founded monasteries in London and Cambridge within a few years. Their land in the City, donated by Sir Richard de Grey, lay between this medieval lane – the eastern boundary of the monastic site – and the Temple. Within the walled precinct was their cemetery alongside Fleet Street, a church on the site of Bouverie Street, monastic buildings – a portion of which can still be seen in the cellars of the modern 65 Fleet Street building – and gardens stretching to the River Thames.
