Middle Temple

The Grecian Coffee House was a coffee house, first established in about 1665 at Wapping Old Stairs in London, England, by a Greek former mariner called George Constantine. The enterprise proved a success and, by 1677, Constantine had been able to move his premises to a more central location in Devereux Court, off Fleet Street. In the 1690s, the Grecian Coffee House was the favoured meeting place of the opposition Whigs, a group that included John Trenchard, Andrew Fletcher and Matthew Tindal. In the early years of the eighteenth century, it was frequented by members of the Royal Society, including Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Hans Sloane, Edmund Halley and James Douglas, and the poet and statesman, Joseph Addison. Classical scholars were also said to congregate there, and on one occasion, two of them fought a duel in the street outside because they fell out over where to position the accent on an Ancient Greek word. In the 1760s and 1770s it was a favourite haunt of Irish law students, especially "the Templers", those young Irishmen who were studying at the Middle Temple. They were attracted there by the presence of the poet and playwright Oliver Goldsmith, who "delighted to entertain his friends there". These friends included the future statesman Henry Grattan.The Grecian was the favourite coffee-house in London of the renowned Shakespearean scholar Edmond Malone. In April 1776, he wrote his father a letter from there, boasting "I am at present writing in a coffee-house, in the midst of so much noise and bustle—the celebrated anti-Sejanus (Mr. Scott) on one side and Mr. [Charles] Macklin [the actor] on the other—that I can't add anything more at present."By 1803, the Grecian was no longer the meeting place of radicals, scholars and scientists but of lawyers and it finally closed in 1843, becoming a pub. The site is now occupied by The Devereux public house, and is a Grade II listed building.

Essex Street is a street in the City of Westminster that runs from Milford Lane in the south to Strand in the north. It is joined by Little Essex Street on its western side and Devereux Court on the eastern side. It was laid out by Nicholas Barbon in around 1675 or 1680 and contains a number of listed buildings.

The Devereux is a pub at No. 20 Devereux Court, off Essex Street, London WC2. It is a Grade II listed building that was built in about 1676 as the Grecian Coffee House. It was refurbished as a pub in 1843.

The Edgar Wallace is a public house at 40–41 Essex Street, London WC2, at the corner with Devereux Court. The pub dates back to 1777, and was originally The Essex Head. The landlord then was Samuel Greaves, a former servant of the Thrale family where Samuel Johnson had lodged and Johnson and his friend Richard Brocklesby established the Essex Head Club in the tavern in 1783.It was renamed in 1975 to commemorate the crime writer Edgar Wallace's birth centenary.

[[File:Gateway from Devereux Court 20130414 080.JPG|thumb|Gateway from Devereux Court]] Devereux Court is a street in the City of Westminster that runs from Strand in the north to Essex Street in the south. It is entirely pedestrianised. The street is named after Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, whose Essex House mansion once occupied part of the site.It is occupied by some barristers' chambers and three public houses: The George, The Devereux, and the Edgar Wallace. The Devereux stands on the site of the celebrated Grecian Coffee House, which shut in 1843.

Essex House was a house that fronted the Strand in London. Originally called Leicester House, it was built around 1575 for Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and was renamed Essex House after being inherited by his stepson, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, after Leicester's death in 1588. The poet Philip Sidney lived in Leicester House for some time. The property occupied the site where the Outer Temple, part of the London headquarters of the Knights Templar, had previously stood, and was immediately adjacent to the Middle Temple, one of the four Inns of Court. The house was substantial; in 1590, it was recorded as having 42 bedrooms, plus a picture gallery, kitchens, outhouses, a banqueting suite and a chapel. Essex’s mother, Lettice Knollys, leased out the house for a while, but she moved in later with her new husband, Sir Christopher Blount, as well as her son and his family. After the executions of Blount and Essex in 1601, she continued to live there until her death, leasing part of the house to James Hay, the first Earl of Carlisle. Hay hosted a lavish banquet for the French ambassador in 1621 at Essex House involving sweetmeats costing £500 and ambergris used in cooking costing £300, and the total bill was £3,300.The house then became the property of Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, who leased part of it to his brother-in-law, William Seymour, 1st Marquess of Hertford. After the English Civil War, the family lost ownership as a result of their debts. Following the Restoration and the death of William Seymour, Sir Orlando Bridgeman lived in the house for a time. When the Duchess of Somerset died in 1674, she left the house to her granddaughter, whose husband, Sir Thomas Thynne, sold it, along with the adjoining lands and properties. The main part of the house was demolished some time between 1674 and 1679. Essex Street was built on part of the site. One of those buildings was used in the mid-1770s as a Dissenters' meeting house known as the Essex Street Chapel, where Unitarianism was first preached in England. The denominational headquarters are still on the site, now called Essex Hall. Their building footprint is believed to include the Tudor chapel of Essex House.

Two Temple Place, known for many years as Astor House, is a building situated near Victoria Embankment in central London, England. It is known for its architecture, and contains notable works by the likes of William Silver Frith, Sir George Frampton RA, Nathaniel Hitch and Thomas Nicholls.On 28 October 2011, Two Temple Place opened as a public gallery. It hosts exhibitions showcasing publicly owned art from regional collections in the United Kingdom, and is also used as a venue for private hire.

The Outer Temple is a building next to the Temple 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".

Child & Co. is a private bank. Founded in 1664 it is the oldest bank in the United Kingdom, and the third oldest bank in the world. Formerly independent, it is now owned by the NatWest Group. The Royal Bank of Scotland incorporating Child & Co., Bankers is based at 1 Fleet Street on the western edge of the City of London, beside Temple Bar Memorial and opposite the Royal Courts of Justice. Child & Co. is authorised as a brand of The Royal Bank of Scotland by the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Pump Court, Temple, London was 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.In the year following 1 Car 1 (1625), brick buildings were erected in the Pump Court. In 1637 (13 Car 1), the rest of the brick buildings in the Pump Court were set up.Many famous figures have lived in Pump Court including William Blackstone, William Cowper, Henry Fielding, Lord Russell of Killowen and Viscount Alverstone, his successor as Lord Chief Justice of England. There is a sundial with a motto that reads "shadows we are and like shadows depart" to remind the residents of the ephemeral character of their occupancy. This sun dial was put up in 1686, and there is an entry in the accounts in respect of it which reads "25th Nov. 1686 Sun Dial in Pump Court £6. 5. 0." It is renovated periodically, and on each of these occasions it was customary for the year and the initials of the Treasurer for the time being to be placed in the centre of the dial. It was restored in 1861. After it was renovated and repainted in 1903, the inscription in the centre read "T. Sir R. B. F. 1903" the Treasurer of the Middle Temple for that year being the Attorney General, Sir Robert Finlay. The insignia of the Middle Temple, the Lamb and Flag, "stood out very boldly" in gold at the top, and the motto was at the bottom. The inscription in the centre was subsequently replaced with "T O M 1686".

Temple Bar was the principal ceremonial entrance to the City of London from the City of Westminster. In the middle ages, London expanded city jurisdiction beyond its walls to gates, called ‘bars’, which were erected across thoroughfares. To the west of the City of London, the bar was located in the area known as the Temple. Temple Bar is situated on the historic royal ceremonial route from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster, the two chief residences of the medieval English monarchs, and from the Palace of Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral. The road east of Temple Bar and within the City is Fleet Street, while the road to the west, in Westminster, is The Strand. At Temple Bar, the Corporation of the City of London formerly erected a barrier to regulate trade into the City. The 19th century Royal Courts of Justice are located next to it on its north side, having been moved from Westminster Hall. To its south is the Temple Church, along with the Inner Temple and Middle Temple Inns of Court. As the most important entrance to the City of London from Westminster, it was formerly long the custom for the monarch to halt at Temple Bar before entering the City of London, in order for the Lord Mayor to offer the Corporation's pearl-encrusted Sword of State as a token of loyalty. The term 'Temple Bar' strictly refers to a notional bar or barrier across the route, but it is also commonly used to refer to the 17th-century ornamental Baroque arched gateway designed by Christopher Wren, which spanned the road until its removal in 1878. A memorial pedestal topped by a dragon symbol of London, and containing an image of Queen Victoria, was erected to mark the bar's location in 1880. Wren's arch was preserved and was re-erected in 2004 in the City, in Paternoster Square next to St Paul's Cathedral.

The Temple is an area of London surrounding Temple Church. It is one of the main legal districts in London and a notable centre for English law, historically and in 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. The Royal Courts of Justice are just to the north and Temple tube station borders to the southwest in the City of Westminster. The associated area is roughly bounded by the River Thames (the Victoria Embankment) to the south, Surrey Street to the west, the Strand and Fleet Street to the north and Carmelite Street and Whitefriars Street to the east. The intervening Essex Street, two streets east of Surrey Street is the traditional western boundary, beyond which are affluent office/hotel and residential blocks, spread over large three street blocks which are closest to the station.