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 located in Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden. The nearest tube station is Chancery Lane.

Overview

All student barristers have to join one of the four inns. In order to qualify as a barrister they must pass exams at Bar School and complete their Inn's dining sessions, being 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 being severely damaged in the Blitz.

History

The first building on or close to the site of the present hall was the manor house of the ancient Manor of Portpool. It was the property of Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton [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] , Chief Justice of Chester, Constable and Sheriff of Nottingham, who died in 1308. Gray's believe the date of their foundation to be [http://www.graysinn.org.uk/content/view/12/328/ about 1388] , but their earliest records date from 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 by then 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 18 years later the land became an adjunct of the courts.

The current "badge" (often misnamed a crest or a coat of arms) was the de Grey arms, changed to reflect the arms of Richard Aungier both in recognition of his achievements at the inn and also because it looked more impressive.cite web|url=http://www.graysinn.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=1&id=1&Itemid=661|title=Gray's Inn - History|publisher=Gray's Inn|accessdate=2008-09-17] 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. The hall in South Square is a grade I listed building. There are other Grade II or II* listed buildings, 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.

Gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.graysinn.info Gray's Inn website]
* [http://www.cugia.org.uk/ Cambridge University Gray's Inn Association]