Museum of the Order of St John

17/04/2026

We are thrilled to announce that the Museum has been awarded £413,015 in capital investment from Arts Council England’s Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND).

The funding will be used to:

🏠Repair and renew the roofs of St John’s Gate, a much-loved architectural landmark and a rare survival from late medieval London

💨Improve the historic building’s resilience to extreme weather and protect our collections for the future

🍃Add state-of-the-art breathable insulation to increase energy efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint

These vital improvements will ensure that we can continue to share this remarkable architectural gem with audiences for decades to come. Work will begin later this year and we will remain open and accessible throughout. Thank you, Arts Council England!

14/04/2026

William Barwell Turner's two-volume history of the heraldry of the Order of Saint John shows the importance of amateur scholars in the recovery of the history of the Order of Saint John at the end of the nineteenth century. Barwell was a brewer and botanist specializing in algae, who had a passion for history. His "Armorie of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem" was completed between 1895-1897. The manuscripts were collected by William Charles Fewtrell, an eclectic bibliophile from Liverpool. Part of our project at the Museum of the Order of St John in London. See it in HMML Reading Room. https://w3id.org/vhmml/readingRoom/view/882210

07/04/2026

Our latest blog post it up, exploring some more photographs from our collection, and Project Volunteer Pat finds a photograph of himself!

Click on the link below to read the blog and see some snaps!

In November 2025, we announced our success in receiving an AIM Museum Fundamentals grant funded by Pilgrim Trust and The Julia Rausing Trust to address our collection of photographic prints (more information here). In this blog post, the project team have chosen to feature some of their recent favou...

18/03/2026

The Monastic Triangle! We love this from our friends and neighbours at The Charterhouse.

Yorkshire might boast the Rhubarb Triangle, but here in Clerkenwell, we’re part of a Monastic Triangle!

If you’re a fan of medieval history or just looking for some inspiration, you can step back in time with us and our neighbours - all in a single day. There will also be time to enjoy the many fantastic cafes and restaurants in the area.

Discover how an almshouse, a hospital, and an ambulance service all share roots in medieval monasteries.

The route:
📍 St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield and Barts North Wing
📍 The Charterhouse
📍 Museum of the Order of St John

Come see what remains of medieval Clerkenwell today!

Built in 1545, Edward North's grand Tudor mansion repurposed the medieval monastic buildings including the church windows seen here. Photo ©️ Nick Guttridge.

10/03/2026

Still time to book for tomorrow evening's talk and learn about the development of casualty simulation and how it influenced today's disaster simulation and emergency preparedness training.

Join Professor Jonathan Reinarz to explore the fascinating evolution and legacy of casualty simulation in twentieth-century Britain.

26/02/2026

24/02/2026

A lovely engraving of Grand Master Raymond de Puy from the Rule of the Sisters of the Hospitaller Monastery of Santa Ursula, in Valletta, Malta, printed in 1681 and commissioned by Grand Master Gregorio Carafa. Part of our digitization project at the Museum of the Order of St John.

23/02/2026

“In 1714, Hippolyte Hélyot began publishing his monumental eight volume history of religious orders...”

12/02/2026

Our latest blog post is up and it’s all about the Museum’s photograph project!

Click on the link below to hear how the project is progressing, see some photographs that we have uncovered, and find out some top tips about caring for your own photograph collection:

https://museumstjohn.org.uk/an-update-on-our-photography-project/

This is an AIM (Association of Independent Museums) Museum Fundamentals project. AIM Museum Fundamentals is funded by Pilgrim Trust and The Julia Rausing Trust.

The Museum of the Order of St John is one of the great hidden treasures of London, tracing the continuous history of a charity that dates back over 900 years. The Order of St John, an international charity, has a remit to provide humanitarian aid and medical support worldwide, and the Museum cannot....

21/01/2026

3 weeks to go until our first online evening talk of the year. Join us to consider what models of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre can tell us about perceptions of Jerusalem in the early modern period.

Was Jerusalem Builded Here? Models of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holy Land and Mobile Memory in Post Medieval England

Wednesday 11 February, 7pm

Join Professor Andrew Jotischky to examine such models and what they can tell us about perceptions of Jerusalem in early modern Britain.

19/01/2026

An invitation to the funeral of Fra Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme and Prior of the Langue of France in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem on 27 January 1727. The recipient of the invitation noted details of his life and death, including the interesting detail the he died in Paris on the Rüe du Beaufort in the bourg of Saint Germain on 24 January 1727, after falling ill around midday on the 23rd attended by Louis Armand II, Prince of Conti, who died only a few months later in May. The Duke of Vendôme's body was transferred to the Church of the Temple and buried in the choir according to the note. Document digitized as part of the digitization project at the Museum of the Order of St John. MOSJ 01862.

19/01/2026

Undated extract of the deliberations of the Canonesses of Saint Antoine de Vienne testifying to the admittance of Sister Marie Delphine Philipine Fortuné de Ripert de Barret to their community. The canonesses were merged into the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1777, thus making her part of the Order. Her admission was in fact based on the proof of nobility submitted by for brother, Fra André-Jean-Hippolyte de Ripert de Barret, who became a Knight of the Order of Saint John in 1787. Part of our digitization project at the Museum of the Order of St John in London. MOSJ 01850.