The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn

About The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn

One of the four Inns of Court in London, England

Lincoln's Inn, formally the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London, alongside Inner Temple, Middle Temple and Gray's Inn: the professional societies to which every barrister and judge in England and Wales must belong. It lies in Holborn on the border of the City of London and the City of Westminster, across the road from the London School of Economics, the Royal Courts of Justice and King's College's Maughan Library, and is thought to take its name from Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, in the late 13th century. It is the largest of the Inns, covering about 4.5 hectares of courts and gardens ringed by historic buildings: the red-brick Great Gatehouse on Chancery Lane (1521), the 15th-century Old Hall, the Chapel consecrated by John Donne in 1623, and the Victorian Gothic Great Hall and Library of the mid-19th century, the oldest law library in London. Many statesmen and thinkers from Britain and around the world have been members, including several leaders of South Asian independence. Next to it lies Lincoln's Inn Fields, the largest public square in London, and a walk around the area gives a vivid sense of the history and traditions of the English legal profession.

Where:

London, United Kingdom