Insight Guides: Experience London by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, UK
Publisher: APA
Published: 2016-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

Take a walk in the hidden tranquillity of the Inns of Court

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

If you were accidentally beamed into the Inns of Court and told to guess where you were, you’d think you had landed in the quads of an ancient university. But this hidden enclave is where London barristers train and practise. There are four Inns – Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple – each with quiet gardens, medieval chapels and Tudor libraries and halls. And, despite some rather stern signs (one forbids the entrance of ‘rude children’), you are welcome to pace the paths and picnic on the grass on weekdays (each Inn has slightly different entrance times, so check websites). The halls are off bounds, unless you book a tour (London Walks; tel: 020 7624 3978) but the chapels are open to the public.

All the Inns of Court are steeped in history. The Jacobean poet, John Donne, was pastor of the Gothic Chapel at Lincoln’s Inn, and his famous lines ‘Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee’ were inspired by the bells that were rung to alert barristers of the death of one of their own. In 1601 Shakespeare oversaw the royal premiere of Twelfth Night at Middle Temple Hall where Queen Elizabeth I was a frequent guest. Dickens’s first job was as a clerk in Gray’s Inn, and he used the Tudor Hall in Lincoln’s Inn as the setting for Bleak House. But whether you are interested in olden times or just want to rest a while in a peaceful garden – the Inns of Court are one of the city’s most rewarding hidden treasures.

Inner Temple; tel: 020 7797 8250; www.innertemple.org.uk; [map] G1

Middle Temple; tel: 020 7427 4800; www.middletemple.org.uk; [map] G1

Lincoln’s Inn; tel: 020 7405 1393; www.lincolnsinn.org.uk; [map] G2

Gray’s Inn; tel: 020 7458 7800; www.graysinn.info; [map] G2

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