Staple Inn is a part- Tudor building on the south side of

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...

street in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Located near

Chancery Lane tube station Chancery Lane () is a London Underground station. It is on the Central line between Holborn and St Paul's stations, and is in fare zone 1. The station has entrances within both the London Borough of Camden and the City of London. It opened i ...

, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the

Institute and Faculty of Actuaries The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries is the professional body which represents and regulates Actuary, actuaries in the United Kingdom. History The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries came into being on 1 August 2010 as a result of the merger of ...

, and is the last surviving

Inn of Chancery The Inns of Chancery or ''Hospida Cancellarie'' were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from a ...

. It was designated a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

in 1974.

History

It was originally attached to

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

, which is one of the four

Inns of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court: Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple, and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They have s ...

. The Inns of Chancery fell into decay in the 19th century. All of them were dissolved, and most were demolished. Staple Inn is the only one which survives largely intact. It was an

extra-parochial area In England and Wales, an extra-parochial area, extra-parochial place or extra-parochial district was a geographically defined area considered to be outside any ecclesiastical or civil parish. Anomalies in the parochial system meant they had no ch ...

until 1858 and then a civil parish. It became part of the

Metropolitan Borough of Holborn The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965. The borough included most of Holborn (the parts outside the City of London) as well as Bloomsbury and St Giles. In 1965 the borough ...

in 1900 and was abolished in 1930. Staple Inn 20130413 063

On 1 April 1994, boundary changes meant that the Inn was transferred from the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

to the City of London (and the City ward of

Farringdon Without __NOTOC__ Farringdon Without is the most westerly Wards of the City of London, ward of the City of London, England. Its suffix ''Without'' reflects its origin as lying beyond the London Wall, City's former defensive walls. It was first establis ...

). It was the model for the fictitious Inn of Court "Bacon's Inn" in Arthur Moore's 1904 novel ''Archers of the Long Bow''. The ancient switch-tailed double pump referred to was replaced in 1937 by a mock single pump, to mark the site.Pictures of both pumps are available at spitalfieldslife.com/2012/01/10/the-pumps-of-old-london/

Wool staple

Staple Inn dates from 1585. The building was once the wool staple, where wool was weighed and taxed. It survived the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

, was extensively damaged by a

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

aerial bomb An aerial bomb is a type of Explosive weapon, explosive or Incendiary device, incendiary weapon intended to travel through the Atmosphere of Earth, air on a predictable trajectory. Engineers usually develop such bombs to be dropped from an aircra ...

in 1944 but was subsequently restored. It has a distinctive

timber-framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

façade,

cruck A cruck or crook frame is a curved timber, one of a pair, which support the roof of a building, historically used in England and Wales. This type of timber framing consists of long, generally naturally curved, timber members that lean inwards and ...

roof and an internal courtyard. The historic interiors include a

great hall A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages. It continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great cha ...

, used by the

. The ground-floor street frontage is let to shops and restaurants, required to use plainer

signage Signage is the design or use of signs and symbols to communicate a message. Signage also means signs ''collectively'' or being considered as a group. The term ''signage'' is documented to have been popularized in 1975 to 1980. Signs are any ki ...

than they do on less sensitive buildings. For a time, the building appeared on the packaging of Old Holborn tobacco.

References

External links

History of Staple Inn from the Institute of ActuariesBarristers Chambers in Staple Inn
(DEAD LINK) {{coord, 51, 31, 04.68, N, 0, 06, 40.28, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Inns of Chancery Timber framed buildings in London Buildings and structures in Holborn Gray's Inn Former civil parishes in the London Borough of Camden

History

Wool staple

See also

References

External links