Holborn: I Live Here II

Holborn: I Live Here II
22 July 2002

Location	Holborn, London. I had an errand on New Fetter Lane in Holborn in central London one lovely summers day. Punctuality was of the essence and so it came that I found myself approaching Holborn tube station an hour before my appointment. I took the opportunity to alight the train and explore Lincoln's Inn on the way to New Fetter Lane. I walked right on High Holborn after exiting the tube station and took a right into one of the small alleys leading to Lincoln's Inn Fields. With some trepidation I entered Lincoln's Inn itself and explored there with my camera until I came out on the other side, on Chancery Lane. Bream Buildings took me straight to New Fetter Lane from there. After the appointment, I had nothing particular to do so I strolled south along Fetter Lane until I came to Temple. I explored Temple and finally came out on the Strand again. There I packed away my camera.

Background	By all accounts the British system of law is very peculiar. One of the peculiarities are the inns of court in London. To be able to address a court as a barrister, a lawyer has to be affiliated with one of the four inns, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple or Gray's Inn. Law students join an inn while they are still undergraduates. The inn arranges compulsory educational events for them. From the 13th century up until 1997 the requirements for becoming a barrister included eating 18 formal dinners in the inn hall. If reading this makes you suspect that the inns of courts are an antiquated system that is inherently conservative, you are quite right. Still, their grounds are beautiful, as you are about to see.

Weather	Sunny and warm with increasing cloud.

Click on the images to see larger versions.


	Outside Lincoln's Inn Fields there's a water fountain. I took the picture mostly because of the triskele finial.

Lincoln's Inn Fields were originally used as pasture for visiting lawyer's horses. In the 1640's Inigo Jones turned it into a fashionable park. There are some lovely exotic trees in it, such as this flowering catalpa. Judging from the size of the flower panicles, I'd say it's a Southern Catalpa, Catalpa bignonioides.

	Here's a closer look at one of the flowers. They are really quite spectacular. However it's an untidy tree that drops seed pods and litter all year round so it's not suitable for ordinary gardens.

While inns serve as quasi-academic institutions to students, their main purpose is to support the barristers who have their offices there. This is a typical office entrance in Lincoln's Inn. With the list of tenants, and the mops and buckets outside it all looks very domestic. Don't let the sign above the door fool you. The building is from the seventeenth century.

	One way the inns support the barristers is by supplying them with gardens for walking about in. However that doesn't mean you can walk anywhere you like. Having an especially made cast-iron sign on the perfect green swath seems very British to me.

This is New Square. It was new in the seventeenth century.

	This is looking north towards the North Gardens. With the tall trees, buildings from different ages and hushed atmosphere it feels a lot like a university campus.

In the previous picture there was a small, red structure in the fond that caught my eye. It turned out to be the Head Gardener's office. It is such a small building and yet so much effort has been lavished on it. The way it's dwarfed by the white building behind only makes it even more desirable. It's a real gem.

	With an entrance such as this, going to see the Head Gardener must have been a treat. Don't you just want to knock on the door? Maybe you'll be invited in for a cup of tea.

A more predictable sight: a red postbox. The double-barrelled ones are quite common in central London. The royal cipher belongs to Edward IIV who ruled from 1901 to 1910.

	This however is rarer. A sign on top of the box points the way to the nearest post office. The design of these signs is much more fragile than the rest of the box so they have often met with accidents or been vandalised. Not so here.

The inns are private property and, as this sign makes clear, you are there at the sufferance of the porter. It's not stated explicitly, but presumably people who vandalise postboxes aren't welcome either, no matter how quietly the go about it.

	The inns are a curious mix of the academic and the domestic. More than once I was reminded of the colleges in Oxford and Cambridge. What looks like rubbish in the corner by the door is in fact 8 pint cartons of milk. No doubt visitors to the offices inside are offered a cup of tea when they arrive. A positive answer will always be followed by the question "Do you take milk or sugar?". The British all take milk and usually one or two pieces of sugar.

The tranquility of the inn sometimes verges on the soporific. Wandering about here on a bright summer's day was very enjoyable. If you find yourself with an hour to spare in central London, I highly recommend it.

	The chapel had an eyebrow decoration over the front door. On the left side we find the bust of R. Cicest from the thirteenth century.

And on the right side, Queen Victoria's bust from the nineteenth century is not looking any happier.

	Here we have emerged from the serene atmosphere of Lincoln's Inn into the right angles and large planes of the twenty-first century. I liked the way the red postbox is mirrored in the plate glass of this obviously modern building.

Walking along Fleet Street, the famous newspaper street, I found some clocks. Here are two on St. Dunstan's church. The clock that is sticking out and the giants that strike the bells were made in 1671 for the previous church in this location. They were saved and added to the current nineteenth century church. When seen from the street they look a bit like an afterthought.

	Further on Fleet Street changes its name to the Strand. That's where this clock can be found on the front of the Royal Courts of Justice. It was criticised as being too small for the tower at the time. I have to agree. As usual there were protesters with placards chanting slogans in front of the court.

Taking Inner Temple Lane off Fleet Street, we find Temple Church. It's well worth going inside. Here a bald man is having his ear bent by a mammal of indeterminate species.

	The symbol of the Middle Temple is a pegasus. It's hard to miss that fact because it crops up everywhere, from manhole covers to weather vanes. Here it adorns the door of 2 Crown Office Row.

All four inns provide their tenants with a library. With its carriage lamps, dark wood and gleaming brass the Middle Temple library looks incredibly civilised in a very English way.

	Across Middle Temple Lane we find the Fountain Court of Middle Temple. While Lincoln's Inn impressed with its leafiness and quiet domesticity, Middle Temple has the edge with its garden open only to members and this fountain. I wasn't the only one who found the benches around the fountain inviting. While I was sitting here I was joined by a bike messenger and a woman having a sandwich.

Looking north from the bench by the fountain we see broad stairs lead up to New Court.

	Back on the Strand I found this fierce griffin holding the London coat of arms.