It measures about 77 feet (23 m) by 80 feet (24 m) and is connected via three passages with Mitre Street to the south west, to Creechurch Place to the north west and, via St James's Passage (formerly Church Passage), to Duke's Place to the north east.
The square occupies the site of the cloister of Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate which was demolished under Henry VIII at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
[1] The south corner of the square was the site of the murder of Catherine Eddowes by Jack the Ripper.
This was the westernmost of the Whitechapel murders and the only one located within the City of London.
[2] Eddowes' murder on the site of the old monastery is ascribed to an ancient curse in a contemporary penny dreadful entitled The Curse Upon Mitre Square A.D. 1530–1888 by J.F.