GRAY'S INN

'The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn' is one of the four Inns of Court around the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England to which barristers belong and where they are called to the bar. The others are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Lincoln's Inn.
It is situated in Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden. The nearest tube station is Chancery Lane.

Contents

Overview

History

References

External links

Overview

All student barristers have to join one of the four inns and in order to qualify as a barrister, as well as passing exams at Bar School they must complete their Inn's dining sessions (about 12 in a year; originally a student qualified solely by eating dinners.) The dinners are eaten in the hammerbeam roofed main hall of Gray's Inn (rebuilt after the original was lost in the Blitz) and there is a still-observed tradition that from sitting down until permission is granted nobody may leave the hall—however much they have drunk and may need to empty their bladders. While there was once a custom of the junior in Hall having to request permission to smoke on behalf of members of Hall, the tradition was abandoned with effect from 1 July 2007 when smoking was banned in enclosed places in England.

History

The first building on or close to the site of the present Hall was the manor house of the ancient Manor of Portpool. The manor house was the property of Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton^[1], Chief Justice of Chester, Constable and Sheriff of Nottingham, who died in 1308. Gray's believe the date of their foundation to be about 1388 (although their earliest records start in 1569).
In 1370 the Manor House is described for the first time as "hospitium" (a hostel). That change of description suggests a gathering of lodgers at the Manor House by 1370 and it seems probable that the "hospitium" was a learned society of lawyers who boarded and worked there, making it rather like a college. Gray's believe that about eighteen years later the land became an adjunct of the courts.
The current "badge" (often misnamed as a crest or a coat of arms) was previously the de Grey arms, but changed to reflect the arms of Richard Aungier both in recognition of his achievements at the inn and also because it looked more impressive^[2]. The motto is "Integra Lex Aequi Custos Rectique Magistra Non Habet Affectus Sed Causas Gubernat" (Impartial justice, guardian of equity, mistress of the law, without fear or favour rules men's causes aright^[3])
The Banqueting Hall in South Square is a grade I listed building. There are further (Grade II or II
★ ) listed buildings elsewhere, including 1 South Square and the statue of Francis Bacon nearby (see picture), numbers 1, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13 and 14 Gray's Inn Square, the pump and the sundial in Gray's Inn Square.

References

1. English spelling did not start to become standardised until the time of Caxton's press, and even after then it took many hundreds of years to become a nationwide system, with the effort culminating in Dr. Johnson's dictionary of 1755. This may explain the apparent discrepancy between 'Grey' and 'Gray', which are homophones
2. Rationale and history here
3. Gray's own translation, found here

External links

★ Gray's Inn website

★ Online Law History of Gray's Inn