Furnival's Inn was an Inn of Chancery which formerly stood on the site of the present Holborn Bars building (the former Prudential Assurance Company building) in Holborn, London, England.
Furnival's Inn was an Inn of Chancery which formerly stood on the site of the present Holborn Bars building (the former Prudential Assurance Company building) in Holborn, London, England.
Furnival's Inn was founded about 1383 when William de Furnival, 4th Lord Furnival leased a boarding facility to Clerks of Chancery, who prepared writs for the king's courts, assisted by apprentices who, as such, received a preliminary legal training. By the 15th century the Inns of Chancery had become preparatory schools for students wishing to be called to the bar by the Inns of Court. [1] In 1548 it was affiliated to Lincoln's Inn through a long-term lease. Sir Thomas More was Reader at the Inn from 1504 to 1507. [2]
By the seventeenth century, the Inns of Chancery began to turn into societies for attorneys and solicitors; they became residences, offices and dining clubs. [3] The greater part of the old Inn was taken down in Charles I's time, and a new building erected in its stead. [4] Although it survived the Great Fire of London, the Inn, together with the other Inns of Chancery, ceased to exist in the 19th century. According to the Gentleman's Magazine of June 1818, "'Furnival's Inn Cellar' was a place well known to the professional gentlemen, where a good dinner may be had at a reasonable price." [5] The Inn was dissolved as a society in 1817 when Lincoln's Inn did not renew its lease and the medieval building was demolished in 1818. [6] The building was rebuilt as apartments by a new owner who retained the old name.
Charles Dickens rented rooms here between December 1834 and throughout the first year of his marriage, until 1837. He began the Pickwick Papers while a tenant there. [7] The character John Westlock in Martin Chuzzlewit lives in Furnival's Inn, and describes it as
"...a shady, quiet place, echoing to the footsteps of the stragglers who have business there; and rather monotonous and gloomy on summer evenings. ... there are snug chambers in those Inns where the bachelors live, and, for the desolate fellows they pretend to be, it is quite surprising how well they get on". [3]
J.M. Barrie lived in a set of chambers at No. 7 Furnival's Inn from 1888 to 1889. [8] The site was redeveloped again, in 1879, as the headquarters of the Prudential Assurance. A plaque marks the site where Furnival's Inn stood.
Furnival's Inn was an area for local government partly in the City of London and partly in Middlesex. It was an extra-parochial area and became a civil parish in 1858 within the Holborn Poor Law Union. The part within the City of London was transferred to St Andrew Holborn in 1900. The remaining parish was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Holborn from 1900 and was abolished as a civil parish in 1930. [9] It was unpopulated after the construction of Holborn Bars.
| Year | 1881 | 1891 | 1901 | 1911 | 1921 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 121 | 121 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Holborn is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. It is located in the wider Temple area of London, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. As a liberty, it functions largely as an independent local government authority.
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. Lincoln's Inn, along with the three other Inns of Court, is recognised as being one of the world's most prestigious professional bodies of judges and lawyers.
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, a person must belong to one of these Inns. It is located in the wider Temple area, near the Royal Courts of Justice, and within the City of London. As a liberty, it functions largely as an independent local government authority.
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these inns. Located at the intersection of High Holborn and Gray's Inn Road in Central London, the Inn is a professional body and provides office and some residential accommodation for barristers. It is ruled by a governing council called "Pension", made up of the Masters of the Bench and led by the Treasurer, who is elected to serve a one-year term. The Inn is known for its gardens which have existed since at least 1597.
The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple.
Barnard's Inn is a former Inn of Chancery in Holborn, London. It is now the home of Gresham College, an institution of higher learning established in 1597 that hosts public lectures.
Chancery Lane is a London Underground station on the Central Line between Holborn and The City in Central London, England. It has entrances within both the London Borough of Camden and the City of London. It opened in 1900 and takes its name from the nearby Chancery Lane.
The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras and the Metropolitan Borough of Hampstead to form the London Borough of Camden.
The George Inn, or The George, is a public house established in the medieval period on Borough High Street in Southwark, London, owned and leased by the National Trust. It is located about 250 metres (820 ft) from the south side of the River Thames near London Bridge and is the only surviving galleried London coaching inn.
Lincoln's Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. It was laid out in the 1630s under the initiative of the speculative builder and contractor William Newton, "the first in a long series of entrepreneurs who took a hand in developing London", as Sir Nikolaus Pevsner observes. The original plan for "laying out and planting" these fields, drawn by the hand of Inigo Jones, was said still to be seen in Lord Pembroke's collection at Wilton House in the 19th century, but its location is now unknown. The grounds, which had remained private property, were acquired by London County Council in 1895 and opened to the public by its chairman, Sir John Hutton, the same year. The square is today managed by the London Borough of Camden and forms part of the southern boundary of that borough with the City of Westminster.
Staple Inn is a part-Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn street in the City of London, London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, and is the last surviving Inn of Chancery. It was designated a Grade I listed building in 1974.
The Inns of Chancery or Hospida Cancellarie were a group of buildings and legal institutions in London initially attached to the Inns of Court and used as offices for the clerks of chancery, from which they drew their name. Existing from at least 1344, the Inns gradually changed their purpose, and became both the offices and accommodation for solicitors and a place of initial training for barristers.
Serjeant's Inn was the legal inn of the Serjeants-at-Law in London. Originally there were two separate societies of Serjeants-at-law: the Fleet Street inn dated from 1443 and the Chancery Lane inn dated from 1416. In 1730, the Fleet Street lease was not renewed and the two societies merged. The society's relevance diminished as Serjeants-at-Law were gradually superseded by Queen's Counsel in the nineteenth century. The building in Chancery Lane was sold in 1877 and the assets were distributed amongst the surviving members, although the society was not formally dissolved. The last member, Lord Lindley, died in 1921. The Fleet Street building was destroyed in the 1941 bombing raids during World War II.
Clifford's Inn is a former Inn of Chancery in London. It was located between Fetter Lane, Clifford's Inn Passage, leading off Fleet Street and Chancery Lane in the City of London. The Inn was founded in 1344 and refounded 15 June 1668. It was dissolved in 1903, and most of its original structure was demolished in 1934. It was both the first Inn of Chancery to be founded and the last to be demolished.
Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden. The route originated as a 'new lane' created by the Knights Templar from their original 'old Temple' on the site of the present Southampton Buildings on Holborn, in order to access to their newly acquired property to the south of Fleet Street sometime before 1161.
Thavie's Inn was a former Inn of Chancery, associated with Lincoln's Inn, established at Holborn, near the site of the present side street and office block still known as Thavies Inn Buildings. Thavie's Inn is one of the earliest Inns of Chancery on record, both by date of establishment and dissolution. It remains a well-known City of London landmark, where Lloyd's Bank is situated, on the opposite side of Holborn Circus from Ely Place.
St Andrew Holborn was an ancient English parish that until 1767 was partly in the City of London and mainly in the county of Middlesex. Its City, thus southern, part retained its former name or was sometimes officially referred to as St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars.
Holborn Bars, also known as the Prudential Assurance Building is a large red terracotta Victorian building on the north side (138–142) of Holborn in Camden at the boundary of the City of London, England. The block is bounded by Holborn to the south, Brooke Street to the west, Leather Lane to the east and Beauchamp Street to the north. It is currently occupied by De Vere Venues and also the London office of English Heritage at 1 Waterhouse Square.
The Royal Commission on the Inns of Court carried out an investigation into the Inns of Court and associated Inns of Chancery between 1854 and 1855. The inns were medieval guild-like institutions that provided accommodation for lawyers and had developed gradually into centres for legal education. All barristers in the country had to be a member of one of the inns. It included many of the leading lawyers and jurists of the time. The commission found many of the inns, particularly the Inns of Chancery, were ineffective at educating students and recommended the creation of a single university of law. Steps were taken to accomplish this and a parliamentary bill was prepared but it was never achieved. The commission did, however, have an influence on legal education for decades and was a factor in the establishment of modern law schools at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London.
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