Paper Buildings are a set of chambers located in the

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Temple, London The Temple is an area or precinct of the City of London surrounding Temple Church. It is one of the main legal districts in London and a notable centre for English law, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It consists of the Inner Temple an ...

. They were initially constructed in 1609. Paper Buildings appear in

A Tale of Two Cities ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by English author Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long impr ...

and

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. On 6 March 1838, about twenty sets of chambers were destroyed, including some valuable libraries, important documents and so forth. The fire originated in the chambers of W. H. Maule MP. Paper Buildings are on the site of Heyward's Buildings, constructed in 1610. The "paper" part of the name comes from the fact that they were built from timber, lath and plaster, a construction method known as "paperwork". A fire in 1838 destroyed three of the buildings, which were immediately replaced with a design by Robert Smirke, with Sydney Smirke later adding two more buildings. A famous resident of (at the time) Heyward's Buildings was

John Selden John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned m ...

, who was one of the original tenants and shared a set of chambers with Heyward himself.

3 Paper Buildings

John Galsworthy John Galsworthy (; 14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) was an English novelist and playwright. He is best known for his trilogy of novels collectively called '' The Forsyte Saga'', and two later trilogies, ''A Modern Comedy'' and ''End of th ...

had chambers here from November 1894, where he wrote a short story called "Dick Denver's Idea", which was his first work of fiction.

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

was located here from 21 February 1911. 3PB (3 Paper Buildings) is a barristers Chambers which has been in existence since Christmas Day 1892. There currently are 152 full-time members, 9 of whom are

King's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

14 Paper Buildings

The Common Bail Office and The King's Bench OfficeRobert Crerar. The Merchant, Tradesman's and Solicitor's Book of Reference. Printed for the author and Basil Steuart. London. 1831
Page 94
/ref> were located here.

References

{{Legal services in the United Kingdom Inner Temple Streets in the City of Westminster