The name of this area of London between the city and Ludgate Hill derives from the arrival in 1517 of a group of Black Freres (‘Black Brothers’) or Dominican friars, who built a new friary in the area after moving from their previous base in Holborn,
This Friary was the venue for a number of parliaments and meetings of the privy council as well as for the divorce hearing between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragorn. It was closed in 1538 following the dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry and was used as a theatre and a headquarters of the society of Apothecaries. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The site of the monastery now lies under Blackfriars railway station and surrounding roads and the Blackfriar public house which stands opposite the station.
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