Tucked into the north-west corner of what was once the walled Roman town of Ratae Corieltauvorum, Blackfriars is a neighbourhood in Leicester, Leicestershire, built on and around the remains of a medieval Dominican priory. The priory is also known as St Clement’s Priory or St Clement’s Church, and the name Blackfriars itself comes from the Order of Preachers – a religious order whose members wore black cloaks and were commonly called Black Friars or Dominican Friars. The site sits a few hundred metres north of the Jewry Wall, Leicester’s surviving Roman bathhouse structure.
Roman Origins and the Blackfriars Villa
Before the church or priory were ever built here, the ground beneath Blackfriars was already significant. Archaeological evidence points to a wealthy Roman townhouse – the Blackfriars Villa – on the same plot. The discovery of the Blackfriars Pavements, three Roman mosaics considered among the finest to survive anywhere in Britain, confirms that the site was occupied by prosperous residents of the Roman city. The priory and church were later established inside the far north-west corner of those long-vanished Roman city walls.
St Clement’s Church and the Dominican Priory
St Clement’s Church was one of seven ancient parish churches in the Medieval Borough of Leicester, alongside St Nicholas, St Peter’s, St Mary de Castro, St Michael’s, St Margaret’s, and St Martin’s. Dedicated to St Clement of Rome, an early Pope and Martyr, the church had origins that likely stretch back to the 11th century. In 1107, its advowson was granted to the canons of St Mary de Castro by Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, along with the advowsons of the other parish churches in the town, excepting St Margaret’s. When Leicester Abbey was founded in 1143 by Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, it took possession of the canonical college at St Mary’s and its holdings, including St Clement’s. In the mid-13th century the advowson passed to the Order of Preachers, who built convent buildings next to the church, converting it into a priory church. Like St Peter’s and St Michael’s, no above-ground remains of the church are visible today. Excavations in 2018 on what is now All Saints Road uncovered what are likely the archaeological remains of the church, along with a large burial ground. A total of 456 burials were unearthed, of which 254 were in mass graves dating to at least the 11th century – predating the Dominican connection by well over a century. Before the expulsion of Leicester’s Jewish community in 1250, the southern part of St Clement’s parish and areas of the neighbouring St Nicholas parish formed Leicester’s Jewry, the district from which the nearby Jewry Wall takes its name.