South out of Aldgate High Street, at No. 81, to Tower Hill (P.O. Directory).
The name seems to have been given to the street at the end of the 16th or begining of the 17th century. Stow mentions the street, but not by name. But it is named in Ryther's map, 1608.
"Bisshoppes Place, without Aldgate, late called the Mynores," 32 H. VIII. (H. MSS. Com. Wells MSS. 227-8).
Other names : "The Mynorytts," 1599-1600 (H. MSS. Com. Salisbury, X. p. 39). "Great Minories" (P.C. 1732-Strype, 1755).
Name derived from the Abbey of St. Clare, called the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Mary of the Order of St. Clare, which stood on this site (Strype, ed. 1720, ii. p. 14).
See St. Clare without Aldgate.
After the dissolution the abbey was granted, 35 H. VIII., to the Bishops of Bath and Wells (H. MSS. Com. Wells MSS. 231), and Wm. Knight appears to have been consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1541 in the chapel of the Bishop of Bath's House situate in the Minories, Aldgate (Kinns, 191).
The abbey precincts were exchanged by Bishop Barlow soon after 1548 with the Duke of Somerset for other property, and were given by the Duke to his brother, Lord Seymour, who was attainted and beheaded, so that the property reverted to the Crown.
It was granted to Henry Duke of Suffolk in 1552 by name of "The Minory House" (Kinus, 202).
A Dictionary of London. Henry A Harben. 1918.