Pink string and sealing wax in London

The Easter vacation really markls the beginning of the season of conferences and visiting summer schools here in Oxford, and over Holy Week and Easter Week I have again been working with my friends from CBL International who have had a study course for international legal and business students in Oriel. The students themselves were a lively and engaging group drawn from Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands.

I provided tours of Oriel itself, of Oxford and led them on a visit to Blenheim Palace, and yesterday we provided the students with a tour of Legal London. I wrote about a similar day August in my post Legal London.

This required an early start - up before 6 - to get the London coach and navigating the tube system to get to Holborn. From there I acted as guide as we went through Lincoln's Inn Fields to look at Lincoln's Inn, and explaining something of the life and history of the Honourable Societies.

The early nineteenth century Hall and Library of Lincoln's Inn,
opened in 1845

Image:crazycowevents.co.uk



Linciln'S Inn, looking south across New Square
towards the Royal Courts of Justice

Image:londonist

After pointing out the historic significance of Carey Street and Chancery Lane en route we had the obligatory group photo outside the Royal Courts of Justice and then went on self-guided tours of that very impressive complex. This time I had more opportunity to look at the display of legal robes and other paraphanalia which illustrtaes the continuity and growth of tradition in the outward expression of the English legal system.

Across the road in the Inner and Middle Temple, where I sat and had my packed lunch, the church was again closed, but I did have more of a chance to look at the memorial to the Order of Templars erected to mark the Millenium. We were fortunate to get in to see the Hall of the Middle Temple, where Twelfth Night was first performed at Candlemas 1602, before having a meeting with a working barrister at his chambers in Fountain Court.

Middle Temple Hall

Image:travelstay

Then, to round off the afternoon, we took the tube to Westminster, and I led those who wanted to join us on a walk up Whitehall, pointing out the historic significance and current use of the buildings of government from the Palace of Westminster up to Trafalgar Square, and ended up with a visit to a pub to give a further aspect, indeed taste, of British life.

After the party dispersed to make their way back to Oxford I headed up to Marble Arch to meet a friend, and we had a very enjoyable Lebanese dinner in the souk that is the modern Edgware Road. Being Middle Eastern the restaurant did not have a drinks licence, so we were forced to end the evening in another pub. There was perhaps something a little odd about two Catholics calmly sitting in The Tyburn, but it provided the opportunity for a wide-ranging and informative discussion - all right, a good gossip - before I headed back to Oxford, getting back at ten past 1 in the morning. Not bad going at all.

Legal London

Last Wednesday I had a day in London with a summer school with whom I have been doing some work. As they were international lawyers the day was built around a series of visits to the legal world of London, although we included a visit for them to be photographed outside Buckingham Palace and the route took in Westminster and Whitehall so as to give a brief opportunity to explain and illustrate the workings of the British constitution.

Starting from Lincoln's Inn Fields we walked through Lincoln's Inn to the Royal Courts of Justice. I had not properly realised that these are open for visitors to look round, and it is a complex of buildings well worth visiting, both for the grandeur of G. E. Street's design and for its insights into the working of justice.

The Great Hall of the Royal Courts of Justice

Image: willswithoutpain

In the lunch break I went off and explored the Middle and Inner Temple, which I had not previously visited, although I had been to both Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn on other occasions. Each of the four Inns has its own character and all repay visiting. The Inner Temple suffered particularly badly in the Blitz, including the burning out of the Temple Church. This was restored but is currently undergoing a further restoration which meant that I could not go inside. Nevertheless it was possible to view the exterior.

The circular nave of the Temple Church

Image: Alan Mothersole on http://www.london-city-churches.org.uk/

The west doorway is a very handsome piece of Norman work, and invites one to pause and reflect on all that it has witnessed in the history of the site.

The west door of the Temple Church

Image:past-caring.com/temple_church

Having rejoined the party and escorted them to the Law Society for a presentation I had time to explore further, walking up Chancery Lane to Holborn, past Gray's Inn and looking at the remains or sites of several of the Inns of Chancery, which originally provided accomodation for the clerks of Chancery - which was based where the former Public Record Office is in Chancery Lane -and then provided the initial education for future barristers before they joined one of the Inns of Court. I regret the disppearnce after their long history of these other Inns, several of which survived until the beginning of the twentieth century. On my stroll I noted the site of Furnival's Inn, looked again at the attractive surviving buildings of Staple Inn, and found in Fleet Street the entrance to Clifford's Inn.

I had a further exploration of the Inner and Middle Temple, walking out into Essex Street, the site of the Strand home of the Devereux Earls of Essex, and the adjacent site of Arundel House, walked round the exterior of St Clement Danes, noted the site of Clement's Inn and went back for a further look at Lincoln's Inn. The last of the Earls of Lincoln who gave their name to it died there in 1310 and was the last of the Lacy lords of Pontefract, so once more a connection to my home area.

As with my visit to the area around St Paul's in July the day was a reminder of just how much can be seen inn a small area of London, and the fact that even if properties have been rebuilt many times over there is a continuity with the past that is fascinating. The corporate memory, and of course one would expect that with lawyers, has sustained that, so that an afternoon's walk is a lecture or seminar in itself.