Entrance to Middle Temple Hall
James Savage (1779-1852)
1831
Red brick with stone dressings
Inns of Court, London
An old verse enumerating the main charms of the Inns of Court ends, "The Inner Temple for a garden / And the Middle for a Hall" (qtd. in Bellot 282). Middle Temple Hall itself is Elizabethan, built 1562-1572, and opened by Elizabeth I in 1576. It is thought to have been a prototype for the Great Hall (image) at Trinity College, Cambridge (see Ruda, Preface). Externally, it has undergone some changes, one of them being the erection of this impressive entrance tower by James Savage, when he was surveyor/architect to the Middle Temple.
The novelist, R. D. Blackmore (the author of Lorna Doone) joined the Middle Temple to study for the Bar in 1849 [DRB]
[The rear of Middle Temple Hall and Middle Temple Gardens]
Photograph by David R. Blackmore