The
great sixteenth-century hall of Middle Temple is one of the finest halls
in England. The medieval hall dated to c. 1320 but the hall pictured
above was completed in the late sixteenth century. Until 1830 a large
open fireplace stood in the centre of the hall.
The
Inner and Middle Temples were originally the properties of the medieval
Knights Templar (an order devoted to the protection of pilgrims in their
journey to the Holy Land), as was Temple
Church. When this order was suppressed in the early fourteenth century
their Inner and Middle Temples passed to the Knights Hospitallers and
from them to the legal fraternity for use as a hostel.The Middle and
Inner Temple have remained bastions of the legal profession ever since.
See
a
plan of the Temple area of London.
