St John's Gate is one of the few tangible remains from Clerkenwell's monastic past; it was built in 1504 by Prior Thomas Docwra as the south entrance to the inner precinct of the Priory of the Knights of Saint John - the Knights Hospitallers. The substructure is of brick, the north and south façades of stone. After centuries of decay and much rebuilding, very little of the stone facing is original; heavily restored in the 19th century, the Gate today is in large part a Victorian recreation, the handiwork of a succession of architects — William P. Griffiths, R. Norman Shaw, and J.