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London 2008: Going to Temple
Apr. 18th, 2008 10:35 amGot dressed up all posh in a suit yesterday to go down to the Royal Courts of Justice and pay a call on Steven Whitaker, the Senior Master of the Queen's Bench Division, the equivalent of Singapore's Registrar of the Supreme Court. Whitaker had paid us a visit a couple of months ago in Singapore and we had met then, and I promised I'd stop by and say hello when I was around.
The Royal Courts are on Fleet Street, just north of the Temple, the area around the Temple Church established by the Knights Templar as their headquarters in England in times past. Temple Bar stands across from the Royal Courts, marking the supposed boundary between the City of London and the City of Westminster.
As those who've read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum know, the Templars were dissolved in 1314, and their property passed to their rivals, the Knights Hospitalier. It was during this time that barristers began to take up residence in the Temple, which was centred around the Middle and Inner Temple halls. When the Hospitalier's left, the lawyers continued to stay there and took over the Temple by Royal Charter in 1608.
To understand why lawyers came in here is because at that time, all cases were heard in the Royal Courts in the City of Westminster, regardless of where they originated in the country, so there were literally inns for barristers to stay when they were arguing cases in the courts. These eventually evolved into the Inns of Court, the professional associations to which every barrister belongs. The Middle Temple and the Inner Temple are two of them (I was a Middle Templar myself, but due to various reasons, never got called to the UK bar), and the other two, situated away from the Temple are, are Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. The current Royal Courts of Justice building, built in the 19th Century, was set up for convenience's sake to be what had become the legal quarter for London, not the other way around.
I hadn't been back to the Temple in a while, so I got there about an hour before my lunch appointment to take pictures of the old place. Photography isn't allowed inside the Royal Courts, so I can't show you what it's like, but it's an old, very complex building, with tall ceilings and large chambers. Say what you want about modernizing court buildings, but I like the smell and feel of these old chambers — I believe that the law should have a certain grandeur, a certain air of authority, and it's not helped if we look like a bank. Anyhow, I had a nice chat and cup of tea with Steven and we had lunch with some of his colleagues in the Inner Temple. Great food... I dare say better than the Middle in my day, and the Inner Temple Hall is is much more brightly lit. Dinners at the Middle were practically shrouded in gloom, which made eating Rainbow Trout a bit of an adventure, considering the bones.
I considered taking a walk along the Embankment after that, but my feet took me towards Chancery Lane instead, so I took the Tube home. There's actually some events surrounding Shakespeare's Birthday this weekend (Old Bill was born, and the new Globe Season starts, on 23 April, St. George's Day) On Saturday I'll be having lunch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
plaid_dragon and her boyfriend, and on Sunday I might just go by the Globe Theatre and check out the festivities of the Open Day.
The Royal Courts are on Fleet Street, just north of the Temple, the area around the Temple Church established by the Knights Templar as their headquarters in England in times past. Temple Bar stands across from the Royal Courts, marking the supposed boundary between the City of London and the City of Westminster.
As those who've read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum know, the Templars were dissolved in 1314, and their property passed to their rivals, the Knights Hospitalier. It was during this time that barristers began to take up residence in the Temple, which was centred around the Middle and Inner Temple halls. When the Hospitalier's left, the lawyers continued to stay there and took over the Temple by Royal Charter in 1608.
To understand why lawyers came in here is because at that time, all cases were heard in the Royal Courts in the City of Westminster, regardless of where they originated in the country, so there were literally inns for barristers to stay when they were arguing cases in the courts. These eventually evolved into the Inns of Court, the professional associations to which every barrister belongs. The Middle Temple and the Inner Temple are two of them (I was a Middle Templar myself, but due to various reasons, never got called to the UK bar), and the other two, situated away from the Temple are, are Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. The current Royal Courts of Justice building, built in the 19th Century, was set up for convenience's sake to be what had become the legal quarter for London, not the other way around.
I hadn't been back to the Temple in a while, so I got there about an hour before my lunch appointment to take pictures of the old place. Photography isn't allowed inside the Royal Courts, so I can't show you what it's like, but it's an old, very complex building, with tall ceilings and large chambers. Say what you want about modernizing court buildings, but I like the smell and feel of these old chambers — I believe that the law should have a certain grandeur, a certain air of authority, and it's not helped if we look like a bank. Anyhow, I had a nice chat and cup of tea with Steven and we had lunch with some of his colleagues in the Inner Temple. Great food... I dare say better than the Middle in my day, and the Inner Temple Hall is is much more brightly lit. Dinners at the Middle were practically shrouded in gloom, which made eating Rainbow Trout a bit of an adventure, considering the bones.
I considered taking a walk along the Embankment after that, but my feet took me towards Chancery Lane instead, so I took the Tube home. There's actually some events surrounding Shakespeare's Birthday this weekend (Old Bill was born, and the new Globe Season starts, on 23 April, St. George's Day) On Saturday I'll be having lunch with
plaid_dragon and her boyfriend, and on Sunday I might just go by the Globe Theatre and check out the festivities of the Open Day.
