London Inns of Court History Tour

You will hear how this small area of London almost by accident fostered the development of the English Common Law which spread around the world to the United States, India, Pakistan, Africa, Australia, and many more countries and was the originator of the world's system of common law.
People who changed the world worked, lived, entertained, and were educated in the Inns of Court, including:

*Eight of the signatories to the American Declaration of Independence
*Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan who owned over 200 bespoke (made-to-measure) suits and, as a barrister in London, was said to never wear the same silk tie twice.
* Mahatma Gandhi who had to promise his mother that he would abstain from meat, alcohol, and women before he could enrol in Inner Temple.
* Sir William Blackstone who influenced commercial and criminal law in the United States and British Commonwealth and said: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”

Meeting Point

Temple

Underground Ltd, Temple Station, Victoria Embankment, Temple, London WC2R 2PH, UK

I will be outside the entrance to the underground

What's included:

• Expert, English-speaking tour guide

What to expect:

Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Middle Temple Hall

Middle Temple Ln., , London

Built in 1573 and said to be "the most perfect" example of an Elizabethan building remaining in Central London. So much of English history revolves around this building.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Inner Temple

London, EC4Y 7HL

We will stop outside Inner Temple Hall. Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 1 suggests that the War of the Roses originated with the picking of red and white roses in Temple Gardens. The garden is usually open to the public during the week in the afternoon.

10 minutes

Temple Church

Temple, King's Bench Walk, London, EC4Y 7BB

Built in 1162 by the Knights Templar, in fiction it featured in Dan Brown's book and film, the Da Vinci Code, and in fact in the Magna Carta negotiations, when King John used the Temple as one of his two bases in London. Temple Church will usually be open after the morning tour - admission is £5.00.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Opened in 1882 by Queen Victoria, the building was originally designed to house 19 courts and now there are around a hundred. We will go inside the building.

15 minutes

Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3TL

This Inn produced eleven prime ministers. The Old Hall was built around 1490 and was sometimes used as a Court of Chancery.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Staple Inn

Staple Inn, London, WC1V 7QH

Is a former Inn of Chancery. The front was erected in 1586 and is the finest example of a Tudor timber framed building in Central London.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Gray's Inn

8 South Square, , London, WC1R 5ET

The hall was built in 1560 and reconstructed after bomb damage with a substantial contribution from the American Bar Association. In the square there is a statue to the Inn's most prominent former member. Hear his story and decide whether there should have been a statue to him.

10 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included