Gray’s Inn

At the end of Chancery Lane on the north side of High Holborn is Gray’s Inn.
Gray’s Inn is one of the Inns of court, it was originally founded in 1370, and named after the owner of the land Sir Reginald le Gray. Unfortunately it was almost destroyed by bombing during the 2 World War.
On the north side stands the hall which was originally built in 1556 – 60, Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors was first performed here in 1594. It contains a screen that is supposed to have been made out of the wood from a
captured galleon of the Armada. There has been a chapel on the site of the current church since 1315. In the garden to the west stand Catalpa trees that are supposed to have been planted by Bacon from cuttings brought back from America by Sir Walter Raleigh.
Some of the famous people who have occupied rooms here are, Francis Bacon, Thomas Cromwell, Sir William Cecil the 1^st Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham.
In 1370 the Manor House is described for the first time as hospitium (a hostel). That change of description suggests a gathering of lodgers by then and it seems probable that the hospitium was a learned society of lawyers who boarded and worked there, making it rather like a college. Gray’s believe that about 18 years later the land became an adjunct of the courts.
All student barristers have to join one of the four inns. In order to qualify as a barrister they must pass exams at Bar School and 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 being severely damaged in the Blitz.