Gray's Inn
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.
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Combined coat of arms of the four Inns of Court. Gray's Inn's arms are at bottom-right |
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.
The Banqueting Hall in South Square is a grade I
listed building.
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Gray's Inn website
