From the Black Death to Henry VIII's break from Rome, a historic medieval refuge in the heart of London's throbbing financial centre is destined for a new lease of life -- by allowing women to move in.
Nestled between building sites in the City of London, Charterhouse's grey stone is the abode of a few dozen men who have to be poor and aged over 60 to qualify.
But hundreds of years since the first stone was laid, a revolution is underway: Charterhouse is opening up to women and creating a museum open to the public.
Charterhouse's monastery was built in 1371 on land which was used to bury victims of the "Black Death", the bubonic plague which decimated London in 1348.
Those struck down by the plague were still being exhumed in 2013, said Dominic Tickell, development director at Charterhouse.
The friars lived in silence but broke their rule for 10 days in the 16th century, to debate Henry VIII's break with the Pope. The dramatic split from Rome in 1535 led to the monastery being dissolved and its friars put to death in an atrocious manner.
The land on which the men once lived was passed to the Duke of Norfolk, who built a cloister and a palace.
The Duke, too, met a violent end -- he was decapitated for high treason in 1571.
The Charterhouse complex was reinvented in the 17th century when it was bought by the wealthy Thomas Sutton, who founded a school, a hospital and a home for 80 impoverished gentlemen.
The latter tradition continues, while the school was moved to Surrey in the 19th century where it is now a private boarding school.
London's Charterhouse today hosts 42 "brothers" who are chosen not for their religious affiliation but under strict criteria. They must be over 60, single, poor, prepared to live in a community and to be in good enough health to live independently.
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