Minories ( /ˈmɪnəriːz/, not /ˈmaɪnəriːz/) is the name of both an area and a street in the City of London, close to the Tower of London. The name can also be found in other English towns, including Birmingham, Colchester, Newcastle, and Stratford-upon-Avon.
The name is derived from the abbey of the Minoresses of St. Mary of the Order of St. Clare, founded in 1294, which stood on such sites; a "minoress" was a nun in the Second Order of the Order of Friars Minor (or Franciscans).
The street Minories runs north-south, with traffic flowing one-way, between Aldgate and Tower Hill Underground stations. The border between the City and Tower Hamlets ran haphazardly between Minories and nearby Mansell Street, until boundary changes in 1994 resulted in the present-day border along Mansell Street, resulting in Minories falling entirely within the City of London. The area was a papal peculiar outside the jurisdiction of the English bishops. The abbey was dissolved in 1539, the property passing to the Crown. The chapel of the former abbey was used as the parish church of Holy Trinity, Minories; and other buildings became an armoury and later workhouse. In 1686, the area became part of the Liberties of the Tower of London.
The Minories area traditionally hosted a large Jewish community.
It gave its name to Minories railway station, built in 1840 as a part of the London and Blackwall Railway – a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) cable railway. The site is now occupied by a Docklands Light Railway station called Tower Gateway, opened in 1989 as the western terminus of the system. The system was extended in 1991 to Bank leaving this as an 'alternate terminus'; it is now open again following platform extension works in 2009.
Opposite the station are some of the buildings of the City Campus of London Metropolitan University.