King's Bench Walk is a street in Temple, in the City of London. It is mainly made up of barristers' chambers.
King's Bench Walk is a street in Temple, in the City of London. It is mainly made up of barristers' chambers.
King's Bench Walk is located in the Inner Temple, [1] one of the four Inns of Court. The other three Inns of Court are Middle Temple, [2] Lincoln's Inn [3] and Gray's Inn. [4] The area borrows its name from the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Solomon, more commonly known as the Knights Templar which is a historical western Christian military order that was established in 1118 AD.
In 1162 the Templars purchased the grounds now known as Temple to be used as their new, larger headquarters. One of the oldest structures still remaining is the Temple Church which was consecrated in 1185. [5] [6] The Temple Bar gateway which stands outside the Royal Courts of Justice and marks the point between Westminster and the City of London also takes its name from the historical Order. [7]
Following the downfall of the Knights Templar in 1307 and its dissolution by Pope Clement V in 1312, the grounds were given to the Knights Hospitaller, Order of St John. It was during the 14th century whilst the Temple was still in Hospitaller possession that two colleges of law were founded within its grounds. By 1388, two distinct societies had formed and they were known as Inner Temple and Middle Temple. Since then, the Temple has been associated with the legal profession and the Bar. [8]
King's Bench Walk takes its name from the Office of the King's Bench, which was first situated along the row in 1621. King's Bench Walk has held buildings since before 1548. These buildings were destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The buildings that replaced them were also destroyed in the subsequent London fire of 1677. [9]
Before the fires of 1666 and 1677, 4 King's Bench Walk, with what is now 5 and 6 King's Bench Walk was known as King's Bench Buildings. [10] 4 King's Bench Walk is located opposite the Inner Temple Library. Like the other buildings on the row, it was rebuilt in 1678 following the London fire of 1677. The building bears an inscription that documents these events;
"Conflagratam Ano 1677. Fabricatam Ano 1678. Richardo Powell Armiger Thesaurar"
The inscription can be seen on four separate tiles divided by doric triglyphs placed above the arched doorway to number four which also mentions Richard Powell being treasurer of the Inner Temple when 4 King's Bench Walk was rebuilt in 1678. [11]
The archway is ascribed to Sir Christopher Wren, one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history who is most recognised for designing St Paul's Cathedral on the top of Ludgate Hill. [12] More of his architectural work can be seen on the eastern end of Fleet Street, namely St Brides Church which boasts the tallest steeple to be designed by Wren. [13] 4 King's Bench Walk is one of the few fortunate buildings in the Inner Temple to have escaped destruction by enemy action during the second world war.
In addition, the signature "Thos Dainand", dated "March 19, 1793", has been scratched into one of the window panes of the first-floor library.
On 4 January 1950, 4 King's Bench Walk became a Grade I listed building. [14]
Numbers 12 and 13 King's Bench Walk are Grade II listed buildings. [15] They were originally built in the early 19th century, in a plain Regency style faced with Bath stone, but were destroyed in the Blitz and rebuilt in replica after the war. [16]
 | This section needs expansionwith: information about the other chambers in the street. You can help by adding to it. (April 2019) |
4 King's Bench Walk has been home to various sets of barristers over the years. However there is now only one, 4 King's Bench Walk Chambers (known as 4KBW) headed by Gavin Holme. [17] 4KBW is one of the last remaining true common law chambers, with barristers with expertise in every area of the law. In addition there is a firm of solicitors, Preiskel Solicitors, who specialise in media and telecommunications law, and a private residence on the top floor. Notable former residents of number four include Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG, diplomat, author, diarist and politician and Sir Ralph Norman Angell, lecturer, journalist, author, and Member of Parliament. [18]
12 King's Bench Walk is home to the chambers of Paul Russell QC, commonly known as 12KBW. [19] 12KBW was led in the early 20th Century by Montague Berryman QC. Gerald Gardiner, Baron Gardiner and Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell previously practised from this set. 12KBW now occupies both number 12 and number 13 King's Bench Walk, and is a top-ranked set for personal injury, industrial disease, travel, and related areas of law. [20] [21]
King's Bench Walk is mentioned in numerous novels such as Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities:
"After a few dull efforts to get to sleep again, which the man dexterously combated by stirring the fire continuously for five minutes, he got up, tossed his hat on, and walked out. He turned into the Temple, and, having revived himself by twice pacing the pavements of King's Bench-walk and Paper-buildings, turned into the Stryver chambers."
King's Bench Walk has specific mention in chapter one of the novel The Red Thumb Mark by R. Austin Freeman. The novel forms part of a series of detective stories featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke;
"Conflagratam Ano 1677. Fabricatam Ano 1698. Richardo Powell Armiger Thesaurar." The words, set in four panels, which formed a frieze beneath the pediment of a fine brick portico, summarised the history of one of the tall houses at the upper end of King's Bench Walk and as I, somewhat absent mindedly, read over the inscription, my attention was divided between admiration of the exquisitely finished carved brickwork and the quiet dignity of the building, and an effort to reconstitute the dead and gone Richard Powell, and the stirring times in which he played his part."
— Richard Austin Freeman, The Red Thumb Mark (1907), Chapter I
In The Squire of Alsatia , Thomas Shadwell refers to King's Bench Walk in its previous form, as King's Bench Buildings:
"I have been at your brother's house, and they say he is come to some lawyer's chamber in the King's Bench Buildings"
— Thomas Shadwell, The Squire of Alsatia (1688)
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court 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.
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 call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to the bar". "The bar" is now used as a collective noun for barristers, but literally referred to the wooden barrier in old courtrooms, which separated the often crowded public area at the rear from the space near the judges reserved for those having business with the court. Barristers would sit or stand immediately behind it, facing the judge, and could use it as a table for their briefs.
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.
The Temple Church, a royal peculiar in the Church of England, is a church in the City of London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built by the Knights Templar for their English headquarters in the Temple precinct. It was consecrated on 10 February 1185 by Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem. During the reign of King John (1199–1216) it served as the royal treasury, supported by the role of the Knights Templar as proto-international bankers. It is now jointly owned by the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court, bases of the English legal profession. It is famous for being a round church, a common design feature for Knights Templar churches, and for its 13th- and 14th-century stone effigies. It was heavily damaged by German bombing during World War II and has since been greatly restored and rebuilt.
The Temple is an area of the City of London surrounding Temple Church. It is one of the main legal districts in London and a notable centre for English law, from the Middle Ages to the present day. It consists of the Inner Temple and the Middle Temple, which are two of the four Inns of Court and act as local authorities in place of the City of London Corporation as to almost all structures and functions. Before the establishment of these Inns of Court, the Temple area was the precinct given to the Knights Templar until they were suppressed in 1312, but the area has retained the name from that time. It became a centre of the legal profession soon afterwards.
Barristers in England and Wales are one of the two main categories of lawyer in England and Wales, the other being solicitors. Barristers have traditionally had the role of handling cases for representation in court, both defence and prosecution.
2 King's Bench Walk is a Grade I listed building that houses barristers' chambers in the Inner Temple, Central London. It was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in about 1680, after the Great Fire of 1666.
A bencher or Master of the Bench is a senior member of an Inn of Court in England and Wales or the Inns of Court in Northern Ireland, or the Honorable Society of King's Inns in Ireland. Benchers hold office for life once elected. A bencher can be elected while still a barrister, in recognition of the contribution that the barrister has made to the life of the Inn or to the law. Others become benchers as a matter of course when appointed as a High Court judge. The Inn may elect non-members as honorary benchers – for example, distinguished judges and lawyers from other countries, eminent non-lawyers or members of the British Royal Family, who become known as "Royal Benchers" once elected.
The Bar of Northern Ireland is the professional association of barristers for Northern Ireland, with over 600 members. It is based in the Bar Library, beside the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast, together with the Bar Council of Northern Ireland and the Executive Council. The Executive Council has taken on many of the functions formerly exercised by the Benchers of the Inn of Court of Northern Ireland, which was established at a meeting of the Bench and Bar held on 11 January 1926.
Tunji Sowande was a Nigerian-born British lawyer and musician.
The Outer Temple is a building next to the Temple area in London, just outside the City of London. In the 14th century, the property seized from the Knights Templar was divided, and that part of the Temple property then just outside London was given the name Outer Temple. It has been suggested that the name Outer Temple once also referred to an Inn of Chancery; its historical existence was first posited by A. W. B. Simpson and confirmed by John Baker in 2008. Little is known of it, other than that it lacked a hall; Baker suggests that this is the reason that it did not survive long enough to appear in many records. Other writers have insisted that it was never an inn: Sir George Buck wrote in 1612 "the Utter Temple neither is nor was ever any college or society of students". Regardless, although the present building takes the name, and is located in the area once known as outer-Temple, it is not otherwise historically connected.
Sir William Dolben KS KC was an English judge who sat as a Justice of the King's Bench.
The history of the Knights Templar in England began when the French nobleman Hugues de Payens, founder and Grand Master of the Order, visited the country in 1128 to raise men and money for the Crusades.
Pump Court is a courtyard in Temple, London, now primarily housing barristers' chambers. It is the first on the left in Middle Temple Lane from 6 Fleet Street, leading to Inner Temple Lane and Lamb's Buildings. Its name referred to the pump in the middle.
Emma Edhem is an Alderman in the City of London Corporation representing the ward of Candlewick. She is also Professor in Practice for Finance at Durham University, and a practicing barrister. Since June 2020, Edhem became Vice President for Greater London and Chairman of City in the Order of St. John. In April 2021, she became Master of the Bench for Distinguished Barristers at the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn. She has also held the position of Deputy Head of International Law at No5 Barristers Chambers since September 2014. In 2012, Edhem became the first woman to hold the post of Chairman of the Turkish British Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TBCCI). In 2011, Edhem served as counsel for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a successful libel case against the Daily Telegraph.
2 Hare Court is a barristers' chambers specialising in criminal and regulatory law, located in the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of court. Established in the 1967, It employs 77 barristers, including 23 King's Counsel and several former prosecutors, including those who have acted as First Senior, Senior and Junior Treasury Counsel – barristers appointed by the Attorney General to prosecute the most serious and complex criminal cases to come before the courts.
Sir Ashton Wentworth Roskill, QC was a British barrister and public servant.
Media related to King's Bench Walk, Inner Temple, London at Wikimedia Commons