3-043-790 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Demolition of the old dining-hall of the Inner Temple, [City of London], 1869. 'The hall was a poor building, and, according to Mr. Cunningham's estimate, "sadly disfigured by Sir Robert Smirke's alterations." It is, however, possible that the Society waited for the falling in of leases and the reversion of chambers to obtain room for the building of a larger hall. This opportunity has now arrived; and, accordingly, that part of the Inner Temple which is situated between Fig-tree-court, the Cloisters, Tanfield-court, and the Gardens, has lately become the scene of Messrs. Trollope's, the builders, operations, preparatory to the rebuilding of the hall and the kitchen, from the designs of Mr. Sydney Smirke. Our Illustration shows the demolition of the old hall, which site, for nearly five hundred years, had been the scene of so many state ceremonies and festivities. Here the white-robed Templars sat in grand state; their ancient seal - two knights mounted upon one horse, which, according to the scandal of Matthew Paris, pointed to the time when they lived upon alms, being so poor that one horse served two of them - the Law Societies very prudently repudiated'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.