Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court around the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England to which barristers belong and where they are called to the bar. The others are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Lincoln's Inn.
It is situated in Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden. The nearest tube station is Chancery Lane.
Overview
Known colloquially as the "Northern Inn", being the furthest from the Royal Courts, Gray's is often said to have a slight left wing slant. It is home to many top barristers' chambers including Matrix Chambers (the human rights set of which Cherie Booth QC, the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair, is a leading member).
All student barristers have to join one of the four inns and in order to qualify as a barrister, as well as passing exams at Bar School they must complete their Inn's dining sessions (about 12 in a year). (Originally a student qualified solely by eating dinners.) The dinners are eaten in the hammerbeam roofed main hall of Gray's Inn (rebuilt after the original was lost in the Blitz) and there is a still-observed tradition that from sitting down until permission to smoke is granted nobody may leave the hall—however much they have drunk and may need to empty their bladders.
After the pudding course and after the high table has cleared, "Mr Junior" (the person dining who is closest to the exit) applies to "Mr Senior" (the barrister of greatest seniority sitting under high table) for permission to smoke. Gray's is the only Inn to retain the tradition of requesting permission to smoke, under the unwritten convention that Mr Junior should make his application entertaining and commensurately brief. In any case, permission to smoke is never refused. One theory is that this will prepare the student barristers for long court sessions ahead, when asking for a personal convenience break should be unthinkable; and in practice there are indeed curious stories of expedients adopted by judges, barristers and students, in Court as well as at dinner.
History
The first building on or close to the site of the present Hall was the manor house of the ancient Manor of Portpool. The manor house was the property of Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton[1], Chief Justice of Chester, Constable and Sheriff of Nottingham, who died in 1308. Gray's believe the date of their foundation to be about 1388 (although their earliest records start in 1569).
In 1370 the Manor House is described for the first time as "hospitium" (a hostel). That change of description suggests a gathering of lodgers at the Manor House by 1370 and it seems probable that the "hospitium" was a learned society of lawyers who boarded and worked there, making it rather like a college. Gray's believe that about eighteen years later the land became an adjunct of the courts.
The current "badge" (often misnamed as a crest or a coat of arms) was previously the de Grey arms, but changed to reflect the arms of Richard Aungier both in recognition of his achievements at the inn and also because it looked more impressive[2]. The motto is "Integra Lex Aequi Custos Rectique Magistra Non Habet Affectus Sed Causas Gubernat" (Impartial justice, guardian of equity, mistress of the law, without fear or favour rules men's causes aright[3])
The Banqueting Hall in South Square is a grade I listed building.
References
- ^ English spelling did not start to become standardised until the time of Caxton's press, and even after then it took many hundreds of years to become a nationwide system, with the effort culminating in Dr. Johnson's dictionary of 1755. This may explain the apparent discrepancy between 'Grey' and 'Gray', which are homophones
- ^ Rationale and history here
- ^ Gray's own translation, found here