Green Link Walk (Section 3)

Explorer Tom Pass beneath St John's Gate in Clerkenwell and the Museum of the Order of St John starts with a building that knows how to make an entrance. The gate was built in 1504 for the Order's priory, and its ground-floor galleries now carry you from medieval care for pilgrims to the first-aid work associated with St John Ambulance. The English priory took shape here in the twelfth century, and the surviving gate has since hosted an astonishing number of lives. Henry VIII dissolved the Order in England in 1540; later the site was linked to the Master of the Revels, a coffee house and a tavern. The museum connects that twisting building history with the Order's long story of care and service, rather than pretending the place stopped changing after the knights left. My theory is that the gate tests visitors with an invisible riddle before admitting them. I walked through, so either I passed or the examiner took the afternoon off. That nonsense aside, the stone arch is a fine prompt to notice how a single London doorway can outlive kings, arguments over faith, writers, drinkers and a modern charity, while still remaining part of the street. The museum's ground-floor galleries at St John's Gate are free and normally open Wednesday to Saturday. The historic rooms upstairs, Priory Church and Norman crypt are available only on guided tours, so do not mistake the open doorway for unlimited access. The church stands across Clerkenwell Road from the gate. Start with the free galleries, then book a tour if the deeper layers have got their hooks into you.