Middle Temple Hall
London is one of the most celebrated cities in the world and a favourite European tourist destination. Millions of tourist every year enjoys the famous London attractions and sightseeing. Middle Temple Hall is perhaps the finest example of an Elizabethan Hall in the country. 101 feet long and 41 feet wide, it is spanned by a magnificent double hammer beam roof. Begun in 1562 when Edmund Plowden, the famous law reporter, was Treasurer of the Inn, it has remained virtually unaltered to the present day.
There are a lot of things to do and see in your London visit. The oil paintings above the Bench Table are those of Queen Elizabeth I who reputedly dined many times in the Hall; Charles I of the school of Van Dyck; Charles II attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller; James II and, all in coronation robes, William III, Queen Anne and George I. In the windows are memorials to other notable people associated with the Inn: Edward VII who was Treasurer in 1887; the Duke of Windsor, made a Bencher in July 1919; Sir Walter Raleigh; Edward Osborne, Lord Mayor in 1583; Ferdinand, 5th Earl of Derby (Amyntas of Spenser’s poem ‘Colin Clouts Come Home Again’); and eleven Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal, twenty four Chief Justices, ten Masters of the Rolls and nine Chief Barons of the Exchequer.
High Table consists of three 29 feet planks of a single oak, reputedly a gift from Elizabeth I to the Middle Temple, cut down in Windsor Forest and floated down the Thames to be installed in the Hall before the building was completed. The Benchers of the Inn still dine at it as they did that evening in August 1586 when Francis Drake, just back from a successful expedition against the Spanish Indies and bringing back from Virginia Raleigh’s Roanoke colonists, was rapturously congratulated by Benchers and members. The hatch cover of his ship the Golden Hind was later used to make the present ‘cupboard’, a table which stands below the Bench table and which replaced a much earlier one.
Located in the heart of London’s legal quarter, Middle Temple Hall is one of the four ancient Inns of Court. London day tour has many of the options like London Open Top Bus Tours, London Walking Tour and Thames River Cruise.
It was built between 1562 and 1573 and remains virtually unchanged to this day having survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 and both World Wars. Middle Temple continues to service the legal profession today, and also houses some of the most imposing event space in London available for formal dinners, weddings, meetings, receptions, corporate events, garden parties and outdoor functions.
Middle Temple Hall, completed in 1574, is late-Gothic in style. Its attractions are a rare double-hammer beam roof, an intricately carved screen (which, although heavily damaged by a World War Two bomb in 1940, was expertly restored), stained glass windows, heraldic coats of arms, a Minstrels' Gallery and some fine oak panelling. Elizabeth I dined in this historic hall on many occasions, as did Sir Francis Drake and fellow explorers Frobisher and Hawkins. Shakespeare performed here at Candlemas in 1602 in the first recorded production of 'Twelfth Night'.
The Hall, however, is not just an historic relic. It is the centre of the life of the Inn today. Bench, Bar and Students meet here daily at lunch, and in the evenings during dining terms. Here are held not only the student moots but all the great functions and meetings of the twenty-first century Middle Temple and Bar.
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