‘[London is] disfigured by the ruins of a multitude of churches and monasteries ’
Venetian Ambassador, 1551
Henry and his agents dismantled the monasteries to raise money for the Crown. This policy had a dramatic impact on the capital because the Church owned nearly two-thirds of the land in central London.
When the religious houses passed into secular hands, the physical appearance of the city was transformed and the social make-up of large parts of the metropolis changed forever. The principal beneficiaries were royal favourites, local landowners, and former tenants, but when more monastic estates were sold after 1542, enterprising Londoners began to make their living from property speculation.