The Temple

The Temple can refer to two of the four Inns of Court in London: Inner Temple and Middle Temple.

The Temple was originally the precinct of the Knights Templar whose Temple Church was named in honour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Knights had two halls, whose modern successors are the Middle Temple Hall and the Inner Temple Hall. Only the Inner Temple Hall preserves elements of the medieval hall on the site, however (namely, the medieval Buttery).

Upon dissolution of the Knights Templar, the Temple passed into the hands of the Knights Hospitaller. By the fourteenth century, lawyers were already recorded as in residence in the Temple. When the Knights Hospitaller departed, the barristers remained. Their current tenure dates from a charter granted to them by James I in 1608.

The area of the Temple was increased when the river Thames was embanked by the Victoria Embankment, releasing land to the south which previously lay underwater. The bank of the original river can clearly be seen in a drop in ground level in the Inner Temple Gardens.

The Temple is now divided into the jurisdiction of the Middle Temple to the west, and of the Inner Temple to the east. The Temple Church is governed by both of these Inns and the Master of the Temple is the senior clergyman of the Temple Church. The western portion of the original Temple was granted to the Earl of Essex (family name Devereux) who gave his name, not only to Essex Court within the Temple, but to Essex Street and Devereux Court outside it. There is also a nineteenth century building called the Outer Temple, abutting onto Fleet Street, but this is not part of the modern Inns of Court and has commercial landowners.

An area known as Serjeant's Inn was formerly outside the Temple, although at one time also occupied by lawyers (the Serjeants-at-Law). However, it has recently been acquired by the Inner Temple, and is adjacent to King's Bench Walk in the Inner Temple, to which it is connected by an archway.

The Inns each have their own gardens in the Temple, and their own dining halls and administrative offices. Most of the land is, however, taken up by buildings in which barristers practise from sets of rooms known as chambers. Until the twentieth century, many of the chambers in the Temple were also residential accommodation for barristers; however, shortage of space for professional purposes gradually limited the number of residential sets to the very top floors, which are largely occupied by senior barristers and judges, many of whom also have other residences further out of London. This, coupled with a general move of population out of the City of London, has made the Temple much quieter outside working hours than it appears, for example, in the novels of Charles Dickens, which frequently allude to the Temple.

The Temple is physically within the boundaries of the City of London, whose western boundary in Fleet Street was at one time marked by the monument known as Temple Bar (now relocated, so as not to impede traffic, to a pedestrian area by St Paul's Cathedral). However, it is independently administered by the Inner and Middle Temple, and is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Corporation of London or of the Lord Mayor.

The Temple gives its name to Temple tube station, which is next to its south-western boundary.