Wednesday, June 19th - Middle Temple Law Library

Today we visited the Middle Temple Law Library. Our guide Renee explained the Inns of Court which was really helpful in understanding the law societies of the UK. They are the four professional associations for barristers in the UK, Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. The different Inns have their own halls, libraries and churches (with some crossover). Middle Temple deals primarily with American law and EU law. There have been lawyers in the Temple since 1320.

The Middle Temple library was founded in 1641 by Robert Ashley. About 3,700 books from his private collection were gifted to Middle Temple. Funnily enough, the collection did not have a lot of law books and wasn’t fully established until space was found in 1680. The original library was bombed during the war. Architect Edward Maufe designed the new building which opened in 1958. Because of this, Middle Temple was one of the few libraries we visited that isn't dealing with storage issues. 

My favourite part was the main hall with all the coats of arms lining the walls. It was a multipurpose space used for lectures, dining and performances. The first recorded production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night happened there. Barristers frequently took part in performances and the back of the hall was used as the stage so performers could enter and exit. It's always fascinating to me to see how spaces are transformed for different needs.

Visit the Middle Temple Law Library website here