PRONOUNCED “maudlin” until the late 1700s, Magdalen Street was named after St Mary Magdalen leper hospital and church which were built there in the early 1100s.

Henry 1 gave control of Colchester Castle among various properties and authorities in Essex to his steward, Eudo Dapifer (also known as Eudo de Rie after his Norman home town) as reward for his long support, which may have included helping build the fortress.

Henry went so far as to turn over his lordship of Colchester to Eudo in 1101. A deeply religious man, Eudo founded St John’s Abbey and a leper hospital dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. It was built outside of the town to keep the leper population away from the healthy townsfolk. In 1189, after Eudo’s death, Richard I granted that the hospital have the right to hold an annual fair in July.

Under Eudo the town prospered, reaching a population of 2,500 (putting it in the middle rank of English towns).

The hospital was founded in 1100. It was built in the North-West corner of the junction between what is now Magdalen Street and Brook Street, deliberately placing it outside of the walled town to keep the leper patients away from the healthy population.

The hospital was controlled by St John’s Abbey, who paid for the upkeep of its inmates with an annual sum of £6 from the Abbey’s estate in Brightlingsea.

As the hospital had its own monks and officials the Abbey’s level of control became a matter of dispute during the latter Middle Ages.