The Temple consists of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, which are two of the four Inns of Court. The associated area is roughly bounded by the River Thames to the south, Surrey Street to the west, Strand/Fleet Street to the north and Carmelite Street/Whitefriars Street to the east.
The Temple contains barristers’ chambers and solicitors’ offices and notable legal institutions such as the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
The name is recorded in the 12th century as Novum Templum meaning ’New Temple’. It is named after holdings once belonging to the Knights Templar. After the Knights order was suppressed in 1312, the area was divided into Inner Temple and Outer Temple (denoting what was within the City of London and what was without).
King Edward II bestowed it on his favourite, Hugh le Despencer. On Hugh’s death in 1326 the Inner Temple passed first to the mayor of London and then in 1333 to William de Langford, the King’s clerk. In 1346, Langford’s lease expired, the Knights Hospitaller leased both Middle and Inner Temples to lawyers.
The Outer Temple area was granted to the Bishop of Exeter, and eventually purchased by the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereux, who gave his name to Essex Street and Devereux Court, as well as Essex Court in Middle Temple.
After Henry VIII dissolved the Knights Hospitaller, the barristers remained as tenants of the Crown. 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 in the 1860s, releasing land to the south which previously lay within the tidal reaches of the river.
The core of the district now lies within the City of London, consisting of two Inns of Court: the Inner Temple (eastern part) and the Middle Temple (western part). The Temple Church is central to these two inns and governed by both of them.
The Inns each have their own gardens, dining halls, libraries and administrative offices. Most of the land is 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 residential accommodation for barristers. A 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.
There is also a 19th-century building called the Outer Temple, situated between Essex Court and Strand. This is not part of the modern Inns of Court and has commercial landowners.
Inner Temple and Middle Temple are two of the few remaining liberties – they are independent extra-parochial areas, historically not governed by the City of London Corporation. They geographically fall within the boundaries and liberties of the City of London, but can be thought of as independent enclaves.
