Inner Temple

• 1. Introduction

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  The Inner Temple sits at the heart of London's legal world, tucked between Fleet Street and the River Thames, yet it operates as if the City of London barely exists. Formally known as the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, it is one of only four Inns of Court in England and Wales, and membership in one of these four bodies is the only path to being called to the Bar and practicing as a barrister. No other route exists.

  The land beneath the Inner Temple was first claimed not by lawyers but by warrior monks. The Knights Templar built their London home here during the reign of Henry II, stretching their estate from Fleet Street down to the Thames. When the Templars were abolished in 1312, lawyers crept in. By 1388, a distinct society called the Inner Temple was recognized in a year book. Its precise founding, like those of all the Inns, is unknown.

  What followed is a story of survival: through the Peasants' Revolt, the Great Fire of London, and the bombs of the Second World War. Today over 8,000 members belong to an institution that has educated prime ministers, independence leaders, and dramatists across eight centuries.

• 2. Warrior Monks and Lawyers

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  Henry II's reign brought the Knights Templar from the Old Temple in Holborn to a new site on the banks of the Thames, and the roads they built to reach it still shape central London. The street originally called New Street, which the Knights created to provide access to their new buildings, eventually became Chancery Lane. The Templars' old premises became the London palace of the Bishop of Lincoln, and after the Reformation, the home of the Earl of Southampton; the site is today called Southampton Buildings.

  The first lawyers came to live on the Templar estate during the 13th century, though their role was advisory rather than independent. They served as legal counsel to the Knights rather than forming any kind of society. When the order fell out of favour and was dissolved in 1312, the crown seized the land and later granted it to the Knights Hospitaller. The Hospitallers were not much interested in residence; they preferred to collect rent.

  Two groups of secular common law lawyers eventually occupied the Hospitaller land. Those who took up the consecrated buildings near the centre of the Temple became the "inner inn"; those between them and the Outer Temple became the "middle inn". By 1388 both had become distinct societies. The Hospitallers leased the land to the Inner Temple for £10 a year, with students arriving from Thavie's Inn to study there. That same annual rent of £10 later appeared in the grant James I made to the lawyers who petitioned him in the early 17th century for secure title to the land.

• 3. Revolt, Fire, and Survival

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  In 1381, Wat Tyler's rebels sacked the Temple during the Peasants' Revolt. The chronicler John Stow described what happened: the rebels went to the Temple to destroy it, pulled down the houses, stripped tiles from other buildings, and burned the books and records of the law students in the street. Stow added that after their work was done, many of the rebels lay down under the walls exhausted by their labours and the wine they had drunk, and killed one another out of old grudges.

  John Baker's assessment is that the inhabitants used the destruction as an opportunity. The 14th-century roofing timbers found in the rebuilt Hall could not have predated the Knights Templar's departure, so the devastation likely prompted a thorough reconstruction. The Jack Cade rebellion later hit all the Inns of Court, though no records specifically document damage to the Inner Temple that time.

  Fire proved an equally persistent enemy. Much of the Inn was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and further fires struck in 1677 and 1678. One of the later fires destroyed Caesar's Buildings on Middle Temple Lane, and the Inner Temple sold the site to the Middle Temple to fund repairs elsewhere. King's Bench Walk has records of buildings from at least 1543, but those were burned in 1666 and their replacements destroyed in 1677. The buildings reconstructed in 1678 and 1684 still form the base of what stands today. A noted inhabitant of those early constructions was Lord Mansfield.

• 4. Revels, Royalty, and Rebellion

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  In the winter of 1561, the Inner Temple staged an elaborate set of revels centred on the figure of Robert Dudley, who was named the Temple's "Christmas Prince". The role was a gift of gratitude: Dudley had intervened in a dispute with the Middle Temple over Lyon's Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery historically tied to the Inner Temple. His influence persuaded Elizabeth I to ask Nicholas Bacon to rule in favour of the Inner Temple, and in thanks the Parliament and Governors swore never to act against Dudley and to offer him their legal services whenever he required them.

  Gerard Legh documented the revels in his Accedens of Armory, a book of heraldry woodcuts, describing Dudley's role as Prince Pallaphilos, lieutenant of Athena and Patron of the Order of the Pegasus. That reference may be the origin of the Inner Temple's coat of arms, a silver Pegasus on a blue background, though another theory ties it to the tiles in Temple Church showing a knight on horseback. The College of Arms confirmed the arms in 1967.

  By 1576, the Inner Temple Parliament was referring to Dudley as "chief governor of this House". The pledge made in gratitude was always honoured. On the 15th of August 1661, following the English Restoration, the Inner Temple welcomed Charles II with a banquet hosted by Sir Heneage Finch, Speaker of the House of Commons, attended by four Dukes including the Duke of York, fourteen Earls, six Lords, and the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The group arrived by the King's barge, and fifty servants brought a lavish feast. The following legal term, the Duke of York was called to the Bar and made an honorary Bencher.

• 5. The Blitz and Rebuilding

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  On the 19th of September and the 26th of September 1940, German bombing destroyed the Library clocktower and the Hall of the Inner Temple respectively. Then on the night of the 10th-the 11th of May 1941, a series of incendiary attacks gutted Temple Church, the Hall, the Library, and many sets of barristers' chambers. Fires burned into the following day despite the efforts of the Fire Brigade and barristers and employees who fought alongside them.

  The decision was made to wait until hostilities ended before rebuilding. In 1944 the Temple approached the War Damage Commission for £1.5 million to cover the damage; £1.4 million was provided, with the remainder found from other sources. The choice of architect complicated recovery. Hubert Worthington worked so slowly that the Benchers replaced him first with his junior associate T.W. Sutcliffe, and eventually with Sir Edward Maufe. The chambers at King's Bench Walk were prioritized and sections were finished by 1949.

  The Library, which had contained approximately 26,000 law volumes and 36,000 historical and architectural texts before the war, had lost 45,000 books, though the rarest manuscripts had been moved off-site beforehand. A replacement Library opened on the 21st of April 1958 and now holds approximately 70,000 books. Temple Church was reconsecrated in 1954 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The foundation stone for the new Hall was laid by Queen Elizabeth in 1952, and the Hall opened in 1955 as part of a complex that included the Hall, Library, and Benchers' Chambers.

• 6. Notable Members

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  Jawaharlal Nehru, who became India's first Prime Minister, trained at the Inner Temple, as did Mahatma Gandhi. Liaqat Ali Khan, who became Pakistan's first Prime Minister, was called to the Bar in 1922 by one of his English law professors. The first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, was a member, as was the fifth President of India, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, and the fourth Prime Minister of Ceylon, S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike.

  From British politics, Clement Attlee and George Grenville both belonged to the Inn. Among members outside law and politics, the dramatist W.S. Gilbert was an Inner Templar, as was the economist John Maynard Keynes and Admiral Francis Drake. King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck of Bhutan is among the more recent notable members.

  In 1922, the Temple called Ivy Williams to the Bar, making her the first female barrister in England and Wales. On the judicial side, Sir Edward Coke, who donated a copy of his Reports to the Library in 1608, was one of the most eminent members. Prince Constantin Karadja, a diplomat later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, also belonged to the Inner Temple.