Re-cycling the Monastic Fabric: Beyond the Act of Dissolution

In the period after the Acts of Dissolution a great number of former monasteries were converted to other uses, notably by Henry VIII's leading courtiers whose aim was often simply to replicate the high-status courtyard houses of the day. Former monasteries, however, presented particular challenges and over the course of time initial solutions were rethought and changes made. Through these processes of broader time-span we can see the ways in which the plan, orientation and inner circulation of monastic buildings helped to reshape aspects of domestic building. In the urban environment, monasteries were put to a greater variety of uses and played a role in the emergence of the new power structures of post-Reformation towns and cities.