The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn

About The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn

One of the four Inns of Court in London, England, UK

Gray's Inn, formally the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London, the ancient professional bodies to which anyone wishing to practise as a barrister or sit as a judge in England and Wales must belong. It stands where High Holborn meets Gray's Inn Road in central London and provides chambers for barristers, some residences, a great hall and a chapel; it is governed by its senior members, the benchers, under a Treasurer elected for one year. The Inn claims no founding date, but law clerks and their apprentices had settled on the site by 1370 and its records begin in 1381. It reached its peak under Elizabeth I, who was its patron, becoming the largest Inn with more than 200 barristers; members included the Elizabethan philosopher and Lord Chancellor who wrote the Essays, and Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors is believed to have had its first performance in Gray's Inn Hall in 1594. Its best-known feature is its gardens, the Walks, recorded since at least 1597 and among the oldest private gardens in London, surrounded by buildings from the 17th to 20th centuries, many rebuilt after wartime bombing. A stroll through its quiet squares gives a rare feel for the history and traditions of the English legal profession.

Where:

London, United Kingdom