Museum of the Order of St John

04/11/2023

The leaves are falling in London 😍🍂
(📸: )

02/11/2023

For World Digital Preservation Day, Archivist Sophie Denman shares a brief introduction to digital preservation in the latest Museum blog post:
https://museumstjohn.org.uk/an-introduction-to-digital-preservation-at-the-st-john-archive/

World Digital Preservation Day is celebrated annually on the first Thursday of November; an opportunity for data creators, archivists, curators, and many others to shout about the benefits and opportunities of digital preservation. In celebration of World Digital Preservation Day, Archivist Sophie D...

25/10/2023

Clocks and Crusaders, Radicals and Rascals.

Join our friends Islington Museum this Sat 28 Oct at 11am for this free guided walk exploring the story of Clerkenwell Green and the streets and alleyways that surround it, discovering colourful characters, fascinating stories and the well that gives the area its name.

A radical walk around Clerkenwell with Karen Lansdown of Islington Guided Walks

08/10/2023

Archivist Sophie Denman provides an update on the progress of the Museum's Archives Revealed cataloguing project.

06/10/2023

It’s been a month since we announced that the Museum’s Archive had won a £35k cataloguing grant from . Read our latest blog to find out how the project is progressing: https://museumstjohn.org.uk/an-update-on-the-museums-archives-revealed-cataloguing-project/

06/10/2023

It's been two months since we announced that the Museum's Archive had won a £35k cataloguing grant from The National Archives - read our latest blog to see how the project is progressing:

Archivist Sophie Denman provides an update on the progress of the Museum's Archives Revealed cataloguing project.

05/10/2023

Shakespearean Music in the Crypt
🗓️ 12 October

We’ve teamed up with to bring you an evening of music and tales from Shakespeare’s London.

Shakespeare wrote for all of society and PIVA will be reflecting this by performing music which runs the gamut from village green to stately court, all in the unique surrounding of our medieval crypt.

Doors open at 18:30 and will be running the bar.

Tickets can be booked via the link in our bio.

04/10/2023

Preserving Malta's Heritage: 2023 Jonathan Riley-Smith Memorial Lecture
Wednesday 11 October, 7pm

An evening lecture in partnership with the St John Historical Society.
This event will be BSL-interpreted.

The Malta Study Center, Hill Museum & Manuscript Library leads an international project to preserve and digitally reconstruct the widely dispersed archives of the Order of St John, much of which was scattered following Napoleon’s invasion of the island in 1798. Dr Gullo will explore the significance of the Museum’s Maltese material and its links to private and public collections around the globe. This lecture marks the start of a new partnership with the Museum of the Order of St John to digitise manuscripts and rare printed books from the collection and make these more widely available to scholars and the public.

Dr Daniel K Gullo joined the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) in 2014 and serves as the Joseph S. Micallef Director of the Malta Study Center. He earned his PhD in History from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining HMML, Gullo served as Assistant Professor of History and Geography at Columbus State University, where he co-founded the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program. He has also taught at Northeastern Illinois University and was a Spenser Fellow at the Newberry Library. In addition to leading digital preservation projects for the dispersed archives of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Gullo served as the project director of vHMML.org from 2015-2020, HMML's online resources for the study of manuscript cultures.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/preserving-maltas-heritage-2023-jonathan-riley-smith-memorial-lecture-tickets-666929793967?aff=oddtdtcreator

Dr Daniel K Gullo, Director of the Malta Study Center in Minnesota, will explore the significance of the Museum's Maltese collections.

17/08/2023

The Museum is delighted to announce that it has been awarded an cataloguing grant from The National Archives!

Archives Revealed is a funding partnership between The National Archives, Pilgrim Trust, and The Wolfson Foundation, which supports the cataloguing of significant collections representing the lives and perspectives of all people across the UK and making them publicly accessible for research and enjoyment.

The grant will allow us to fund a Project Cataloguer for 14 months from October 2023 to catalogue the early records of St John Ambulance from c.1870-1939. This project will transform public access to the early records of the international first aid charity, St John Ambulance which was founded in the 19th century as a response to healthcare challenges faced by communities in industrial Britain. Volunteers learnt first aid skills that they could apply at home, in the workplace, and in public spaces, decades before the founding of the National Health Service and the welfare state.

The collection is relevant to communities across England, particularly in the heartlands of Victorian Britain where industries such as mining and manufacturing flourished and injuries at work were all too common. The project will produce the first comprehensive catalogue of these records, which offer huge untapped research potential across the humanities and social sciences, linking to medical history, voluntarism, emergency and disaster planning, gender studies and global and colonial history.

We will be running an inclusive and accessible programme of events throughout the duration of the project to share new discoveries and invite new perspectives. It is a huge achievement to receive this grant, and we cannot wait to get the project started and share progress updates and treasures from the collection!

17/08/2023

The Museum is delighted to announce that it has been awarded an cataloguing grant from to catalogue the early records of from c.1870-1939!

Find out more about the project in our latest blog post via the link in our linktree.

09/08/2023

For we also have a great range of books available to buy in the Museum shop!

From knights hospitallers to Victorian London, castles, knights, kings and queens, artwork and silverware, and first aid practice, there really is something for everyone!

09/08/2023

Did you know that it is today?

Some of the books that we really love in the Museum are the many bound books containing issues of First Aid (the independent journal for the ambulance and nursing services).

First Aid contains news, reviews, innovations in first aid care, photographs, and information about the work of the St John Ambulance Association and St John Ambulance Brigade from 1894-1953. They’re a fantastic exploration of first aid practice and innovation through the years!

If you fancy browsing these brilliant books, why not check out the entire collection which is freely and publicly available online via the link in our linktree.

08/08/2023

Thank you to History Hit for coming to visit us and producing this fantastic film all about the medieval Knights Hospitaller. We love it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utslUpFKpM4

You can visit all the spaces that Katie visits on our guided tours! 👇

https://museumstjohn.org.uk/planning-your-visit/guided-tours/

If you imagine a Catholic military order from the Middle Ages, it’s likely to be the Knights Templar - popularised by Dan Brown’s fictional thriller, The Da ...

07/08/2023

Join us this Thursday lunchtime at 12:30pm for our next ☕️

Free to all, and all are welcome.

Join us to explore changing patterns of collecting over the last 100 years.

19/07/2023

Over the summer holidays, we'll be running free family activities every Wednesday between 11am and 3:30pm, and it's just one week til the first one! No need to book, just drop in and join us.

These activities are going ahead despite the strikes that are expected to affect London's public transport network next week, and we hope that you will be able to join us!

Marbling Medieval Manuscripts
Wednesday 26th July
Use watercolour paints to create your own marbled masterpiece, plus handle some mystery medieval objects with the help of our friends from the Museum of London!

Join us to create your own marbled medieval manuscript, and discover what’s in the Museum of London’s handling collection!

07/07/2023

Discover more about the Order of St John, St John Ambulance and the history of Clerkenwell at our free Ten-Minute Talk and Tea events which take place on the second Thursday of every month. Tea and biscuits provided.

While many believe that diabetes is a by-product of modern society, the condition has been mentioned throughout history, including in sources from ancient India and Egypt. For our next Ten-Minute Talk and Tea, on Thursday 13th July, join Visitor Welcome Assistant Melanie Nightingale in a whistle-stop exploration of the highs and lows of how diabetes was diagnosed and treated across the world and through the ages.

Image: Physicians at a surgery, one is letting blood, another interpreting urine. Detail from Livre des proprietez des choses, Netherlands, 1482. British Library, MS Royal 15.E.II, fol. 165.

This is a free event. The event will take place in the Museum Galleries which are on ground level with step-free access throughout.

Join us to hear the story of diabetic healthcare, before and after the discovery of insulin.

22/03/2023

Four weeks to go until our next evening talk...

Defenders of the Faith: The Preservation of Armour from Rhodes
An evening lecture in partnership with the St John Historical Society.
7pm, Wed 19 Apr

In the middle of the nineteenth century, an extraordinary cache of late medieval and Renaissance armour was uncovered in the ruins of the Crusader citadel at Rhodes. Defended by the Knights of Rhodes since the fourteenth century, the fortress fell to the Ottomans in 1522. Portions of the Knights’ armoury were walled up however, and thus preserved until modern times. This remarkable time capsule contained not just the equipment of knights, but, perhaps more importantly, a great deal of ‘munitions’ armour for the rank and file men-at-arms fighting to defend the Island. Although the Rhodes cache is now dispersed across several modern museum collections, an important group of pieces is now in the collection of the Museum of the Order of St John.

Dr Tobias Capwell is one of the world's leading experts on European arms and armour. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers, and was Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection between 2006 and 2022. He is the author of many books including Arms and Armour of the Medieval Joust (2018) and Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011). The final book in Toby's three-volume history Armour of the English Knight (2015, 2021, 2022) has recently been published, completing a 20-year project. Toby also appears regularly on television and online. His credits include A Stitch in Time (BBC, 2017) Richard III: The New Evidence (C4, 2014) and Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (BBC, 2012). Most recently he worked as historical advisor on the feature film The Lost King (2022).

Get your ticket 👇

Dr Tobias Capwell introduces an extraordinary tale of survival from the Hospitallers' armoury at Rhodes.

21/03/2023

Would you like to be one of the very first people to experience our new limited edition Royal Stories, Royal Treasures guided tour? 👑

There are still a few tickets left for the inaugural tour this Fri at 11am...

In celebration of the Coronation of the Order’s Sovereign Head, King Charles III, for a limited time only book on a special royal tour. From Henry II to Charles III, discover more than eight centuries of royal patronage and hospitality through rarely seen objects in the Museum’s collection.

Tours will last 60 minutes. The tour includes the Priory Church, crypt and historic rooms in St John’s Gate.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tour-royal-stories-royal-treasures-tickets-524617173087

📸Harriet Langford

From Henry II to Charles III, discover more than eight centuries of royal patronage and hospitality through rarely seen objects.

20/03/2023

One month today, join Impropera as as they create a new opera entirely from scratch at St John’s Gate, inspired by the surroundings and the Museum's hidden stories.

Witness an original performance that has never been seen before, and will never be seen again!

What could possibly go wrong..?!

No script. No score. No safety net.

18/03/2023

Did you know that it's Neurodiversity Celebration Week this week?

1 in 7 people within the UK are neurodiverse, and this week is designed to celebrate their strength and challenge any preconceptions.

Here at the Museum of the Order of St John we launched our Seacole Sessions in 2022 to enable neurodiverse families to better enjoy our workshops and spaces.

These sessions are sensory-friendly events for families, designed to support autistic and neurodiverse families and are suitable for people who would benefit from visiting the museum when it is less crowded and noisy.

If you would like to know more about our next Seacole Session, please click the link below! 🙂

Make your own seedy Bird Feeder to hang in the Garden or take home!

08/03/2023

We're sorry to announce that we've had to cancel tonight's online talk: Women and the Order of Saint John in the Middle Ages.

All those who booked have been sent an email.

We hope to reschedule. If you would like to be sure of hearing about the new date, why not subscribe to our e-newsletter? Visit the Museum's website and enter your email address under 'Connect' at the bottom of the homepage:

A hidden jewel which tells the unique story of an ancient religious military Order. Their gatehouse and secret gardens are available for event hire.

04/03/2023

It's one week until our 100th birthday party!

Come and celebrate with us on Saturday 11th March 2-4:30pm.

Enjoy an afternoon of behind-the-scenes tours, free family-friendly activities, tea and birthday cake! Plus make a souvenir print to take home with artist Anna Alcock.

Free, all welcome.

24/02/2023

Celebrate the Coronation of the Order's Sovereign Head by joining a Royal Stories, Royal Treasures tour, available for a limited time only...

👑👑👑

From Henry II to Charles III, discover more than eight centuries of royal patronage and hospitality through rarely seen objects in the Museum’s collection.

The first tour is one month's time. Tickets are selling fast, so get yours now!

From Henry II to Charles III, discover more than eight centuries of royal patronage and hospitality through rarely seen objects.

22/02/2023

Two weeks to go until our next :
Women and the Order of Saint John in the Middle Ages

An online evening lecture in partnership with the St John Historical Society to mark International Women's Day.

Women were associated with the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem from its earliest beginnings. One of these was Constance of France, the sister of King Louis VII, who made a pilgrimage to the Latin East in the 1170s and became a Hospitaller sister there. Why? Dr Myra Bom explains the Order’s appeal to Constance and other medieval women.

Dr Myra Bom is a Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, a Research Associate at Royal Holloway, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She has published Women in the Military Orders of the Crusades (2012) and Constance of France: Womanhood and Agency in Twelfth-Century Europe (2022).

Tickets are free, donations welcome if you can. All donations will support the work of the Museum of the Order of St John, helping to care for its collections and historic buildings.

Live captions will be provided by Stagetext.

Book your ticket👇

In this online talk Dr Myra Bom explores why this military religious order appealed to women.

15/02/2023

Come and Celebrate our 100th Birthday!
Saturday 11th March 2-4:30pm.

Join us for free talks, behind-the-scenes tours, family-friendly activities, tea and birthday cake. All welcome, just drop in.

Pick up a printed What's On guide next time you're at the Museum to find out what else is happening at the Museum over the coming months, or check out the What's On page on our website.

13/02/2023

Are you enthusiastic and creative? Do you enjoy working with children and families? Would you like to help adults and children engage with art, culture and history? Then the role of Family Learning Volunteer could be for you!

We currently looking for people to join our team of Family Learning Volunteers to support the Museum's Learning and Engagement Team in the development, delivery, and evaluation of the Museum of the Order of St John's regular programme of free family activities. Through crafts, storytelling, and trails, you will help us to spark the curiosity of local families as you provide practical support to enable adults and children to learn together.

The Museum’s family programme takes place throughout the year from monthly Under 5’s workshops during term time, to school holiday workshops aimed at children aged 3-10, and Seacole Sessions designed to support Autistic and neuro-diverse families.

For more information and to apply, please use the link below. Be quick, because the closing date to apply is this coming Sunday 19th February!

https://www.sja.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer-opportunities/volunteer-opportunity-search/opportunity-detail/196352

09/02/2023

As part of Islington Council's Winter Warmers programme, we're hosting a free event next Wednesday afternoon (15th February) which is open to all.

Explore the spectacular interiors of St John's Gate, a local landmark since 1504. Join Museum staff for a warm drink and an informal tour of the Tudor gatehouse to discover some of its many uses from the entrance to a medieval Priory, to a coffee shop, printing press, pub and ambulance station.

There will be two sessions: one from 2:15-3pm, and the second from 3:15-4pm. There's no need to book, just turn up and enjoy!

07/02/2023

We're really excited about not just one, but two talks that we're hosting this week...

The first takes place TOMORROW evening at 7pm with Ben Morris speaking about his fascinating PhD research into Byzantine and English Treaties 900-1200. Register at the link below.

The second is our first ten-minute of the year, at 12:30pm on Thursday. Join us in person during your lunch break to hear our very own Sarah Wilkinson speak about the historic links between Malta and the USA. No need to register in advance, just turn up and enjoy!

An online talk by Dr Ben Morris, winner of the St John Historical Society Prize for original research.

04/02/2023

Have you seen our new British Sign Language introduction to the Museum by historian John Wilson?

We run regular interpreted tours, and the next is in just one week's time. Tickets are still available via our website.

A British sign language introduction to the Museum of the Order of St John.To find out more about our programme of Deaf-led and BSL interpreted tours and eve...

01/02/2023

St John Ambulance Cadet Voices online exhibition goes live!

Grab a cup of tea, find a comfy spot and listen to some incredible stories of what it has meant to be a Cadet over the last 80 years.

Young people have been a vital part of St John Ambulance since its very beginning, and in 1922 the organisation officially established the Cadets as a nationwide programme for under-18s. To celebrate the centenary of St John Ambulance Cadets in 2022, young people from across the charity interviewed their predecessors from the 1940s to the present day.

After a year-long project with interviews taking place in 16 locations across the country you can now enjoy listening to extracts online.

The project was kindly funded by St John Ambulance, the St John Fellowship and a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

This online exhibition presents just some of the many memories from these conversations including lifesaving First Aid, supporting the country’s war recovery, camping adventures, and numerous events and celebrations including the 1987 Great Party in Hyde Park.

28/01/2023

Last week, the St John heritage team met with Girlguiding Norfolk Archive Resource Centre - ARC. This purpose-built archive and collection centre, which opened in 2016, is the home of heritage collections telling the rich story of over 110 years of Girlguiding history in Norfolk.

The volunteers running the centre use their collections to deliver a range of engagement activities, helping young people and adults (of all ages) have fun and learn about inspirational women through history.

It was wonderful to see how much they’ve achieved in a relatively short time, and we came back full of inspiration and ideas for St John heritage projects.

27/01/2023

We're pleased to announce our first evening talk of the year, in partnership with the St John Historical Society:

Wednesday 8th February
7-8pm

Armies on the Move: The Movement of Military Service in Byzantine and English Treaties, 900-1200.

Diplomacy and warfare are intrinsically linked, both in the modern world and its medieval counterpart. This talk explores how two of the most bureaucratic medieval powers, Byzantium and England, approached the movement of military service in their treaties. From the Count of Flanders, to the Emir of Aleppo, and crusading forces, the movement and supply of troops remained a vital diplomatic issue in the medieval world.

Dr Ben Morris has recently finished his PhD at Cardiff University, which focused on the comparative study of Byzantine and English treaties. In 2022 he received the St John Historical Society Award for original research. He has forthcoming articles in the ‘Theories and Practices of Pacification in the Norman Worlds’ collection, and the soon to be published ‘In the Absence of Envoys’ volume.

An online talk by Dr Ben Morris, winner of the St John Historical Society Prize for original research.

20/01/2023

This February Half Term we are offering more free family activities than ever before!

On Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th February, you can join us for a very exciting collaboration with the Old Operating Theatre making Herbal Pomanders!

Make a nice-smelling pomander, believed in the past to ward off "bad air" (miasma), learn about how medicine was made, and handle historic objects with the Old Operating Theatre.

The session on Wednesday 15th February between 11am and 3:30pm will be drop-in (no booking necessary), while the session on Tuesday 14th February between 11am and 2:30pm is part of our autism-friendly programme, “Seacole Sessions” and spaces must be pre-booked.

On Thursday 16th February it's time to reveal our greatest secret… “Unlocking the Secret Garden”! Meet our Community Gardener Gabby, unlock and explore our secret garden with storyteller Olivia and create the garden of your dreams through craft and collage between. This session is from 10:30am to 3:00pm and spaces must be pre-booked.

Tuesday 14th February- Seacole Sessions Herbal Pomanders

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/seacole-sessions-family-activity-herbal-pomanders-tickets-510565895337

Wednesday 15th February- Drop In Herbal Pomanders

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drop-in-free-family-activity-herbal-pomanders-tickets-510559446047

Thursday 16th February – Unlocking the Secret Garden

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/free-family-activity-unlocking-the-secret-garden-tickets-510587048607 This February Half Term we are launching more activities than ever before!

18/01/2023

Did you spot our very own Sarah Wilkinson on Bargain Hunt last week? Sarah told Caroline Hawley and audiences nationwide the story of the death mask of l'Inconnue de la Seine, and how it's still saving lives today.

You can catch up on BBC iPlayer now: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001h0xs/bargain-hunt-series-64-detling-6

11/01/2023

Happy !

Here are a couple of snippets of the we look after for St John Ambulance.

Would you like to see the bigger picture? Join us for a guided tour! National Lottery Heritage Fund

https://museumstjohn.org.uk/planning-your-visit/guided-tours/

08/01/2023

Did you spot us on Gangsta Granny Strikes Again over Christmas?

The sequel to the 2013 film included David Walliams, Sheridan Smith and Maggie Steed.
We saw the Crypt transformed into the Tower of London where a very daring heist took place in an attempt to steal the Crown Jewels! The Old Chancery became a football trophy room, and if you look carefully you can see our collection pieces have been replaced with trophies and football magazines!

The full episode can be watched on BBC iPlayer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001g4wd/gangsta-granny-strikes-again

07/01/2023

If you missed our last Ten-Minute Talk and Tea of 2022 - 'Trowel & Error: The Archaeology of the Priory of St John and St John’s Gate' - then we have a New Year's treat for you, as it is now viewable on our YouTube page!
https://youtu.be/eJCPV2lVOz8

Join Collections Inventory Assistant Immie Meade as she shares some of the archaeological objects that have been found at the Priory of St John and St John’s Gate in Clerkenwell, including a closer look at objects which are normally not on display at our museum! The text of this video is available as a blog post on our website: https://museumstjohn.org.uk/10-minute-talk-trowel-and-error/

Our Ten-Minute Talk and Tea programme will resume in February, all talks are free to attend and take place at 12:30pm on the second Thursday of each month in our accessible Museum Galleries.

In this talk, our Collections Inventory Assistant Immie Meade shares some of the archaeological objects that have been found at the Priory of St John and St ...

05/01/2023

Looking for something to do with your little ones in ?

There are still spaces available for our under-3s family workshop next Wednesday morning. Book your spot at the link below.

All Change! Join in with this fun story about different kinds of transport and make a vehicle of your own.

04/01/2023

Happy New Year! 🎇

We can't wait to welcome you back to the Museum from 10am tomorrow morning.

There are still spaces on our 2:30pm tour, so book now if you'd like the chance to visit the spectacular Victorian interiors of St John’s Gate as part of your visit and to discover the personal stories of St John Ambulance’s dedicated women and men.👇

Visit the spectacular Victorian interiors of St John’s Gate to discover the personal stories of St John Ambulance’s dedicated women and men.

23/12/2022

Today is our last day of opening before the holidays. We'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of you, our friends and supporters, a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

We will be re-opening on Thursday 5th January at 10am. In the meantime, please enjoy these photos of the Priory Church and garden, taken at dawn last Monday morning.