London - Middle Temple

The Temple is entered from Fleet Street through a handsome Wren gateway. To the west of Middle Temple Lane is the Middle Temple, the members of which have included such notable figures as Sir Walter Raleigh, John Pym, Henry Fielding, Thomas Moore, Thomas de Quincey. W. M. Thackeray and R. B. Sheridan. The Middle Temple Hall was built during the reign of Elizabeth I, in 1576, as a dining and assembly hall. After suffering severe bomb damage during the Second World War it was restored in the original style, and still preserves much of the original paneling, a carved screen of Elizabethan style, a magnificent double hammerbeam roof, armorial glass and a serving table made from the timbers of Drake's "Golden Hind". The large windows bear the coat of arms of those members of the Temple who once belonged to the House of Lords, and an equestrian picture of Charles I. Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" was performed here on second February 1601. Judges and barristers still lunch in the hall, and here, too, the students dine during term.

Fountain Court, to the north, leads into Garden Court, from which there is a gate opening on to the Embankment. On the east side of Middle Temple Lane is the entrance to Pump Court (1680), which gives access to the Inner Temple.