Discovering The Hidden Secrets Of Lincoln’s Inn

The Inns of Court around Holborn and Temple are true historic gems in London, undiscovered by many.

I was delighted to be recently shown around Lincoln’s Inn, located just North of the Royal Courts of Justice in Holborn, by Dunstan, the Inn’s librarian. It was a journey through 600 years of architecture and the stories of those that have been involved in the Inn over the years.

The grounds and chapel are open to the public Monday-Friday and the rest of the Inn is opening, for free, for Open House weekend in September this year.

What are the Inns of Court?

The four Inns of Court: Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple, are professional institutions for barristers in England and Wales. 

Their origins are murky but they likely formed in the 14th century. They provided practical legal training when English law was not taught in the universities. As the ‘inn’ part of their name suggests, they also provided accommodation to their members when court was in session.

In 1218 a Papal bull prohibited the practice of civil law by the clergy. Therefore, to protect their legal schools, in the 12th and 13th centuries proclamations were passed by the King prohibiting the teaching of civil law within the City walls. The Inns of Court therefore set themselves up in the areas just outside the City walls; in Temple and Holborn.

Today the Inns of Court are like little villages tucked away inside London, with a few entrances leading into each. They are all, generally, a glorious mishmash of eras and architectural styles.

The Origins of Lincoln’s Inn

Lincoln’s Inn has continuous records going back to 1422, but the institution certainly predates this.

Where the ‘Lincoln’ part of Lincoln’s Inn comes from is a bit of a mystery. There was possibly a link at to the Earl of Lincoln at one time but no-one is quite sure when or why that link would have been in place.

The Inn’s home in Holborn today, from the thirteenth century, was the site of a manor house owned by the Bishop of Chichester. It was later (probably in the 14th century) rented to the lawyers for their own purposes and they bought the freehold in 1580.

This stone archway near the Old Hall is all that survives of the original manor house. 

Highlights To Look Out For

I have marked the highlights and a couple of other bits on the map below.

The Gatehouse

The gatehouse onto Chancery Lane was originally completed in 1520 and, amazingly, the wooden gates are thought to date from that period.

There is also a panel on the outside, dated 1518, showing the royal arms of King Henry VIII in the centre. 

The Old Hall and a Notorious Dinner

The Old Hall was built from 1489-92 and used for dining but also the member’s education. It was extended in the late 1500s and heavily restored in the 1920s due to dilapidation. 

The incredible medieval ceiling is original and has an opening (called a louvre) in the centre for letting out smoke. 

There is, at one end, a painting called ‘Paul before Felix’ by William Hogarth (1745). 

At the other end is this incredible wooden screen dating from 1624.

It would have been used to divide the hall, with one doorway providing access to the kitchens and cellars. The top area was also originally a minstrels gallery that would have been where King Charles II’s violinists played when the King dined in the hall in 1672. 

Records of that dinner show that it was a pretty rambunctious and drunken occasion. The diners were apparently so drunk that they were unable to stand to say the loyal toast and the King gave special permission for them to remain sitting. The tradition of sitting for the loyal toast continues at the Inn to this day.

The King also apparently asked how you become a member of the Inn to which the answer was that you must pay the admission fee and sign the register.

The King promptly asked for the register to be brought to him and signed his name. Prince Rupert of the Rhine and his brother, the future King James II, also signed the book along with various other members of the court. The signatures survive to this day with lots of ink splotches left by the inebriated party. 

The Chapel 

The chapel was constructed from 1620-23 as a replacement of the original chapel of the Bishops of Chichester. There is apparently a tradition of chapels in bishop’s palaces to be raised on undercrofts at ground level and the new chapel stuck to this design. 

Inside the chapel you will notice an angel holding the coat of arms of the poet and clergyman John Donne.

He was a member of the Inn and preached the sermon for the consecration of the chapel in 1623 (it is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year). He was so popular that there was a crush to see him deliver the sermon and two people actually died.

In the stained glass windows of the chapel are the coats of arms of the various treasurers of the Inn over the centuries. The Treasurer being the most senior position at the Inn. 

You can see one below for example for William Pitt the Younger, future Prime Minister, who was treasurer in 1794.

17 former Prime Ministers of the country have been members of Lincoln’s Inn including Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.

The Undercroft

One of the absolute highlights is the incredibly atmospheric undercroft of the chapel, with its rib-vaulted ceiling. 

The undercroft was long a place of burial, so you will notice many gravestones in the floor. Spot the stone to John Thurloe (1616-1688) in particular who was Oliver Cromwell’s Secretary of State and spymaster. He had chambers at the Inn. 

In the 18th century the undercroft became a place for people to leave their unwanted babies. The records of the Inn show payments to people to care for the abandoned children, who would usually be given the surname ‘Lincoln’. 

Make sure to spot the shrapnel damage from a World War One zeppelin bomb on the outside of the chapel.

You can also see the spot, marked by this little circle, where the bomb landed. 

Remarkably the Inn managed to emerge fairly unscathed from World War Two but suffered more from World War One bombs.

The chapel and undercroft are open to the public during the Inn’s opening hours. 

The Stone Buildings

The Stone Buildings were built in the 1770s and 1780s designed by Sir Robert Taylor.

Their construction was actually as part of a larger plan to redevelop most of the site that included knocking down the Old Hall and many of the older buildings except the chapel. Thankfully they ran out of money. 

Here you can very much see why the Inn is used regularly in filming. The stone buildings make the perfect Georgian street and does not involve closing anything off to the public. The Inn has been used in Downton Abbey, You, The Sandman, Cruella, Wonderwoman and many others. 

The Smallest Listed Building In London?

Make sure to also spot London’s smallest listed building: the Ostler’s Hut! Or is it… 

Built in 1860, it was essentially a porter’s hut. An ‘ostler’ was someone who traditionally looked after horses. 

Another contender though, depending on whether you count it as a building, is the police observation post in one corner of Trafalgar Square. 

Some say that listed red telephone boxes should count as buildings so that would make themn the smallest. Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments- is the Ostler’s Hut the smallest? 

The Great Hall and Library

In the 19th century, as the Inn was growing, more substantial buildings were required. 

The library and Great Hall were built from 1843-45, designed in this neo-Tudor style by Philip Hardwick, with this lovely octagonal chamber between them. 

The amazing Great Hall is overlooked by a huge fresco by George Frederic Watts called ‘A Hemicycle of Lawgivers’.

It depicts lawgivers of the past such as Moses, Charlemagne and Pythagoras. Watts used his friends as models, so Alfred Lord Tennyson for example, is representing Minos of Crete. 

There are many portraits of the Inn’s former members such as Sir Thomas More. There are also five large original portraits of the ‘Fire Judges’ hanging between the windows.

These were the judges selected by the City after the Great Fire to deal quickly with boundary and ownership disputes. 

The library is also breathtaking, with three tiers of shelving and iron walkways/spiral staircases around the top.

The statue in the centre is of Lord Eskine (1750-1823): an upholder of the rights of free speech and opinion.

How To Visit

The chapel, undercroft and grounds are open to the public Monday-Friday 8am-7pm. 

The other buildings are opening to be visited as part of the Open House festival in September 2023. There is no need to book, just turn up on the day, you can find out more here. 

Thank you for reading! More of London’s hidden historical gems below…