The buildings noticed in this section belong partly to the crown, partly to the corporation of London, and partly to other bodies.

The Temple.—Contiguous to the south side of Fleet Street is a most extensive series of buildings, comprising several squares and rows, called the Temple; belonging to the members of two societies, the Inner and Middle Temple, consisting of benchers, barristers, and students. This famous old place, taken in its completeness, was, in 1184, the metropolitan residence of the Knights Templars, who held it until their downfall in 1313; soon afterwards it was occupied by students of the law; and in 1608 James I. presented the entire group of structures to the benchers of the two societies, who have ever since been the absolute owners. The entrance to Inner Temple, from Fleet Street, consists of nothing more than a mere gateway; the entrance to Middle Temple was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Middle Temple Hall, 100 feet long, 42 wide, and 47 high, is considered to have one of the finest Elizabethan roofs in London. A group of chambers, called Paper Buildings, built near the river, is a good example of revived Elizabethan. A new Inner Temple Hall was formally opened, in 1870, by the Princess Louise. In October, 1861, when the Prince of Wales was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple, a new Library was formally opened, which had been constructed at a cost of £13,000; it is a beautiful ornament to the place, as seen from the river. The Temple Church, a few yards only down from Fleet Street, is one of the most interesting churches in London. All the main parts of the structure are as old as the time of the Knights Templars; but the munificent sum of £70,000 was spent, about twenty years ago, in restoring and adorning it. There are two portions, the Round Church and the Choir, the one nearly 700 years old, and the other more than 600. The monumental effigies, the original sculptured heads in the Round Church, the triforium, and the fittings of the Choir, are all worthy of attention. The north side of the church has recently been laid open by the removal of adjoining buildings; and in their place some handsome chambers are erected. Hard by, in the churchyard, is the grave of Oliver Goldsmith, who died in chambers (since pulled down) in Brick Court. The Sunday services are very fine, and always attract many strangers. The Temple Gardens, fronting the river, are probably the best in the city.

Lincoln’s Inn was once the property of the De Lacie, Earl of Lincoln. It became an Inn of Court in 1310. The fine new hall—worth seeing—was opened in 1845. The Chapel was built in 1621–3, by Inigo Jones. He also laid out the large garden in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, close by, in 1620. Lord William Russell was beheaded here in 1683. In Lincoln’s Inn are the Chancery and Equity Courts.

Graves Inn, nearly opposite the north end of Chancery Lane, once belonged to the Lords Gray of Wilton. It was founded in 1357. Most of its buildings—except its hall, with black oak roof—are of comparatively modern date. In Gray’s Inn lived the great Lord Bacon, a tree planted by whom, in the quaint old garden of the Inn, can yet be seen propped up by iron stays. Charles the First, when Prince Charles, was an honorary member of Gray’s Inn, and Bradshaw, who tried him, was one of its benchers.

Sergeant’s Inn, Chancery Lane, is what its name denotes—the Inn of the sergeants-at-law. Sergeants Inn, Fleet Street, is let out in chambers to barristers, solicitors, and the general public. The last remark applies to the other small Inns of Chancery in and about Holborn and Fleet Street.

Till the new Law Courts are erected in Central Strand, London has no Courts of Law well built or convenient. The Westminster Courts are little better than wooden sheds. So are the Lincoln’s Inn Courts. But they still are worth a visit. At the Old Bailey, near Newgate, is the Central Criminal Court, for the trial of prisoners accused of crimes committed within ten miles of St. Paul’s. Nominally, this court is free; but practically, a small douceur is always extorted by the ushers for a place. In the other courts this practice of ‘tipping’ is less common. The Bankruptcy Court, in Basinghall Street, the Clerkenwell Sessions House, the County Courts, and the Police Courts, are other establishments connected with the administration of justice; but the business of the first will shortly be transferred westward.

The Record Office.—Connected in some degree with the Courts of Law and Equity, is the New Record Office, Fetter Lane, where is deposited a vast body of unprinted documents belonging to the state, of priceless value, including the far-famed Doomsday Book; they having been previously scattered in various buildings about the metropolis. Apply to the deputy-keeper for an order to inspect any but state papers of later date than 1688, for which the Home Secretary’s special order is requisite.

Prisons.—Newgate, the chief criminal prison for the city and county, in the Old Bailey, was a prison in the new gate of the city as early as 1218. Two centuries after it was re-built, and in the Great Fire (1666) burnt down. It was re-constructed in 1778–80; its interior burnt in the Gordon ‘No Popery’ riots in 1780; and its interior again re-constructed in 1857. Debtors are no longer confined here; the few who come under the new law—which has almost abolished imprisonment for debt—being sent to Holloway Prison under the new law. Till public executions were abolished, criminals came out for execution in the middle of the Old Bailey, through the small iron door over which is suspended a grim festoon of fetters. They are now hanged privately inside the jail. The condemned cells are on the north-east side of Newgate. To view the prison, apply to the sheriff or the lord mayor. The chief debtors’ prison was the Queen’s Bench, in Southwark. It is now a Military Prison. The City Prison, Holloway, a castellated structure, was built in 1855, as a substitute for other and overcrowded jails in London. Other prisons are the House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, capable of holding 1,200 prisoners; the House of Correction, at Wandsworth; the House of Correction, Westminster; Millbank Penitentiary, near the Middlesex end of Vauxhall Bridge, which could, if wanted, hold 1,200 prisoners, and cost £500,000; Pentonville Model Prison; Female Prison, Brixton; Surrey County Jail, Horsemonger Lane, on the top of which the infamous Mannings were hanged in 1849; and the House of Detention, Clerkenwell, which the Fenians tried to blow up. The last prison is for persons not convicted.