Royal Mint Court

Royal Mint Court
Johnson Smirke Building
General information
Town or city	London
Country	England

Coordinates: 51°30′33″N 0°04′22″W / 51.5092894°N 0.0729155°W / 51.5092894; -0.0729155

Royal Mint Court is the site of a 19th-century building located on Little Tower Hill in London, England which served as home to the Royal Mint from 1809 until 1875. The current 5.5 acre site comprises two original Grade II listed buildings as well as a newer office and residential block. Originally occupied by Eastminster Abbey in 1348 the site was later used as a victualling yard for the Royal Navy and a tobacco warehouse before becoming a mint in 1809. After the mint relocated, the site was redeveloped with new buildings added to the complex alongside the two remaining listed mint buildings.

As of 2017, Royal Mint Court is again set to be re-developed with plans for a new office, shopping and leisure complex. Planning permission was approved in July 2016.

In 1349 during the Black Death the site became a plague cemetery known as the Churchyard of the Holy Trinity where three mass burial trenches and 14 grave rows were dug alongside a small chapel. During excavation of the site between 1986-1988 the remains of 762 bodies were recovered as well as a number of belt buckles and two hoards of coins. On 20 March 1350 Edward III granted the site to the Cistercian order for the building of a new chapel named the Royal Free Chapel of St Mary Graces on Tower Hill which eventually became the Abbey of St. Mary de Graces. Built to serve just 10 monks and an abbot the abbey was the last Cistercian foundation in England to be built before the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1538 St. Mary Graces was surrendered to the crown and sold to Sir Arthur Darcy who demolished part of the monastery buildings and lived there until is death in 1560. The site was then sold back to the crown becoming a victualling yard for the Royal Navy until 1739 when the navy moved to new premises in Deptford.