Our Common History: The Inns of Court

Today Avenue and Ridley is presenting a new blog feature titled Our Common History. This feature will mix photographs taken of significant places in the common law world with brief historical descriptions. The first stop in Our Common History will feature the Inns of Court.

The Inns of Court are professional institutes for barristers in England and Wales and count four in number: Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Middle Temple and Inner Temple. The resiliency of the English inns is unique in the common law world, although there are existing inns in Ireland (both Northern and the Republic) and in the late 1970s the US Chief Justice Warren Burger, sought to import the idea to the United States with some success – although they never took brick and mortar in the Great Republic like they did in London.

Inns of Court are not just professional associations – they also have drama and debating societies, libraries and dining rooms. Gray's Inn is the smallest of the four and the below photographs were taken from Theobald’s Road in Camden. Famous jurists from Gray's include Sir Francis Bacon, Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud and Lord Atkin.

A couple kilometres south of Gray's Inn is Lincoln's Inn. This striking complex closely resembles the campus of an ancient university and is directly north of the Royal Courts of Justice. Famous members of Lincoln’s Inn include: Sir Thomas More, Sir William Gladstone, William Osgoode (First Chief Justice of the Province of Ontario), Lord Denning and Tony Blair.

Across the street from the Royal Courts and due south of Lincoln's Inn, is this building featuring a statue of Sir Thomas More. Sir Thomas authored the famous book Utopia and was one of the first Lord High Chancellors not to be a clergyman. This is ironic considering he would be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 1935, exactly 400 years after his martyrdom.

Finally, we come to the Middle and Inner Temple inns. These two were built around the famous Temple Church, home of the Knights Templar and, according to some, clues to the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. When the Knights Templar feel into disrepute, Edward II took royal possession of the church and it eventually ended up in the possession of the Knights Hospitaller, who subsequently rented it to lawyers. Today the Bar ceremonies for both Middle Temple and Inner Temple take place in the church.

Famous Middle Templars include Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir William Blackstone and famous Inner Templars include Lord Coke and Jawaharlal Nehru. The bottom photo is of the River Thames looking towards the Palace of Westminster directly south of the Temple area.

Avenue and Ridley hopes you have enjoyed this little tour of the Inns of Courts and hopes you come back for future adventures around Our Common History.