Anna Mason: Head of Heritage at St John’s Gate

St John has dominated the southern tip of Clerkenwell for more than 900 years but may still be Islington’s best-kept secret. Here Head of Collections and Public Engagement, Anna Mason, shares the many wonderful offerings from its historic buildings and 100-year-old museum, to its community programmes. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill 

Anna Mason from St John’s Gate says: “People will say I’ve walked under this arch for 20 years and I never knew I could come inside! Our job is to change that perception, invite people in and make everyone feel welcome.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

Anna Mason, 39, must be insanely busy as Head of Collections and Public Engagement at St John’s Gate, but she still manages to radiate calm intelligence as she shares her passion for its incredible collection of buildings and objects in Clerkenwell. It’s clear she’s as excited about the history of the organisation which as the Order of St John stretches back to the 12^th century Crusades – as she is to discover and share individual stories of training, courage, adaptation and derring-do in the lead up to celebrating St John’s Ambulance’s 150-year history in 2027.

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And even before that big date, the museum turns 100 in 2023. As a result there are multiple activities underway including preparations for a new digital catalogue to make the collections more accessible. Another big project has been getting young St John Ambulance Cadets to collect oral histories from older St John members for an online exhibition to celebrate the Cadets’ Centenary in 2022.

Anna Mason from St John’s Gate (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

“St John Ambulance has always been embedded in its communities. It started in the mines and railways where people were dying or being seriously injured because of lack of first aid care and equipment. There was a desire to avoid preventable injuries, improve survival and help communities be more resilient,” explains Anna. Today St John Ambulance volunteers, in their green uniform, are a familiar and welcome sight at so many events from football and music stadia to local fetes and the charity played a huge role during the pandemic. “The Museum team work all over England with St John volunteers to help take care of and share their heritage – there are so many incredible stories.” It’s clear she also wants many more people to know that the modern St John Ambulance started here in Clerkenwell “in the room above the arch”.

Anna Mason from St John’s Gate in the Cloister Garden next to the Priory Church: “The outside of the building is deceptive. Behind the Gate’s striking façade are many beautiful spaces and people are often surprised by how much there is to explore. I think it’s particularly magical for children. We run regular family workshops and have a dedicated programme for neuro-diverse families to enjoy sensory-friendly activities in a quiet and peaceful environment. We also work with Islington schools and students from across London.’ (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

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5 things Anna Mason loves in Islington

• My absolute favourite is the Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green. Their building is like ours, a warren of unexpected spaces and it has a really significant collection. I’m fascinated by Clerkenwell’s radical heritage.
• The place we go whenever someone new joins the team is Bench, The Goldsmiths’ Centre café a few minutes from Farringdon station. It’s welcoming and they do really nice hot chocolate and salads. The staff are really friendly too.
• Our Cloister Garden next to the Priory Church. This is open to everybody six days a week. When you step inside it’s like a pocket of quiet. It’s very, very calming and a lovely space to sit. In summer it is full of people having their lunch.
• My inner history geek loves the 5-10 minute walk to the London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road. It has the most incredible collection. We took the team to see the London Maps exhibition. It was fascinating looking at maps of where we all lived. I also recommend the behind-the-scenes tours with the chance to visit their conservation and photographic studios.
• Islington has loads of theatres but I love the Little Angel puppet theatre and have taken my son there several times. The last thing I saw with him was The Bed, a magical show based on a Sylvia Plath poem.

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Anna Mason from St John’s Gate: “There are a wealth of stories to share as the museum has more than 60,000 objects.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

Halfway through the interview Anna takes us for an explore into rooms built above the famous stone arch, a space many of us use as a Clerkenwell landmark, but actually dates back to Tudor times when this was the “gate entrance to the inner precinct of the Priory of the Knights of St John,” explains Anna. At street level you can see the doors on opposite sides of St John’s Gate are mismatched heights, one having been remodelled to sit at the new, higher street level.

Islington is lucky that this entrance to the original Priory, modelled on London’s city gates (which are now all lost physically even if their names still remain, e.g., Aldgate), is still in place, despite Henry VIII’s anti-monastic policies and then thanks to major structural repairs carried out in the 1800s.

The interior rooms in the gatehouse were also remodelled and are very much in use today.

Anna Mason from St John’s Gate. (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

“It’s really magical lit up in the evening,” says Anna pointing at half a dozen red lamp shades as if this will flick on our imagination. To a certain extent it does: like London generally there are so many layers of history at St John’s Gate. This wooden panelled Council Chamber can now be visited on a tour, but in the 1840s it used to be the HQ for the first magazine published in the UK, The Gentleman’s Magazine (established 1731). See here. In the early 18^th century, it was also a coffee house run by Richard Hogarth (father of artist William Hogarth), though it wasn’t all that successful as eccentric Richard made his “customers converse in Latin…”.  The space was much more popular in its next iteration as a pub, Ye Olde Jerusalem Tavern, despite the narrow winding staircases in and out.

Anna Mason from St John’s Gate in the Chapter Hall (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

We also see the huge Chapter Hall – a Gothic-style wood panelled, Victorian building completed in 1903 and embellished with Medieval and modern coats of arms. This space is used for the Museum’s regular pub quiz (and like many of the spaces available for hire), as are The Old Chancery and down a thickly carpeted corridor the elegant Prior’s Dining Room with a huge polished mahogany table.

Across Clerkenwell Road in St John’s Square, EC1, there’s the Priory Church, with a striking black and white chequered floor and beneath it a shallow-arched 12^th century Norman crypt, both still consecrated. These historic spaces can be visited on a tour and are also used for musical and theatrical performances.

Anna Mason from St John’s Gate: “Our Museum turns 100 in 2023. Lots of celebrations are planned from March, but our first priority is throwing the doors open – you can’t come if you don’t know that we are here.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

Anna clearly adores being in the midst of the collection and in such special buildings. “I really like my job – working from home during covid reminded me how much I enjoy being surrounded by collections and people,” she says. She joined St John in 2021, and previous roles include running the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow (she has published several books on this subject). Perhaps it is no surprise that surrounded by first aid collections and St John’s inspiring volunteers, Anna’s extra January mission will see her train as a Mental Health First Aid Responder.

2023 looks like being an important year for St John’s so here’s wishing Anna and her team lots of happy days and many visitors

Anna Mason from St John’s Gate: “Our museum turns 100 in 2023. Lots of celebrations are planned from March.” (c) Kimi Gill for Islington Faces

Events Islington people will enjoy at St John’s Gate

• Explore the website and blog https://museumstjohn.org.uk/
• Also see insta/twitter: @museumstjohn @stjohnsgate
• £1 guided tours for Islington Residents (tickets normally £12)
• Regular British Sign Language Interpreted tours.
• Free creative workshops for under-5s, run with Islington-based ArtBurst and inspired by first aid and the collections
• Free family workshops in the school holidays with activities and storytelling aimed at 3-10 year olds
• Free lunchtime 10-minute talks and tea, on the second Thursday of the month
• Pub quizzes inspired by the building’s past life as the historic boozer Ye Olde Jerusalem Tavern. Open to all, but must be booked. Team ticket is £35 per table (2023).
• Experience the Gate and Church after-hours with regular music, theatre and evening talks.
• Visit the Museum of the Order of St John, free and open Wed – Sat, 10am-5pm. Address: St John’s Gate, St John’s Lane, Clerkenwell, EC1M 4DA.
• There’s a community event on the afternoon of Saturday 11 March, 2-4.30pm, to celebrate the Museum’s 100^th birthday. Everyone is welcome, it’s free and no need to book.
• The online exhibition about St John Cadets went live at the start of February  2023, see https://sjacadetvoices.org.uk/
• Relax in the Cloister Garden, free and open six days a week (not Sunday). Occasionally closed for private events and in bad weather.
• Look out for volunteering opportunities in the garden and museum, including new projects with the team’s Community Gardener.
• For the latest information or to book an event visit the museum’s Eventbrite page or give the team a call on 020 7324 4005 (line is open Wed – Sat, 10am-5pm).

Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. Thank you to Dorothy B for suggesting this interviewee If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola

Nicola Baird