Middle Temple

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit the The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The gardens of the Middle Temple, c 0.75ha, are located to the south of Fleet Street, west of the Inner Temple (qv) and north of the River Thames, in the City of London. The gardens are irregular in shape and include a lawned area (Middle Temple Garden), laid out on ground which slopes southwards to the Thames, an L-shaped court (Fountain Court), and a narrow court (Garden Court) between the Garden and Fountain Court. The courts and Garden are on different levels and are connected by flights of steps at the north and south ends of Garden Court. The gardens are surrounded by railings along Temple Place to the south-west, Victoria Embankment to the south, and Middle Temple Lane to the south-east, and by buildings along the other boundaries.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

Fountain Court is approached from New Court to the north-east, Middle Temple Lane to the east and from Garden Court to the south-west. Garden Court provides the approach from Fountain Court to Middle Temple Garden to the south and the exit to the Temple at Temple Place. In the summer, the Garden can also be approached through Middle Temple Library on the east side.

PRINCIPAL BUILDING

The buildings that surround the Garden and courts provide the setting to the gardens. Middle Temple Garden is bounded by the Queen Elizabeth Building (Sir Edward Maufe 1958; on the site of the former Middle Temple Library) to the west; and Plowden Buildings, Middle Temple Library (rebuilt by Sir Edward Maufe in 1956), and Temple Gardens (listed grade II) to the east. Garden Court is bounded by Nos.1-2 Garden Court (listed grade II) to the west, Middle Temple Garden to the south, Middle Temple Hall (listed grade I) to the east and Fountain Court to the north. Fountain Court is bounded by Garden Court to the south-west, Middle Temple Hall to the south-east, Middle Temple Lane to the east, Essex Court (Nos.1-3 listed grade I, No.4 listed grade II*) and Brick Court (No.1 listed grade II) to the north-east, New Court to the north-west, and Fountain Court Buildings to the west. (For further details on the buildings see Pevsner 1985 and the Listed Building descriptions.)

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

Fountain Court is a large court, paved throughout with flagstones in 1999 (replacing the late C20 gravel surface, which had paved paths connecting the main approaches). The narrower east side (known as Hall Court until the late C17), is approached from Middle Temple Lane and is unornamented except for a few trees. On the wall of Essex Court, which forms part of the north side of Fountain Court, is a sundial dated 1685. The wider west side has a fountain (listed grade II) at its centre, with a white marble moulded basin. The fountain was constructed in 1681 and is reputedly the oldest permanent fountain in London (Pevsner 1985). It was by this fountain that Ruth Pinch met John Westlock in Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewick. Within Fountain Court are mature planes (mid C19), chestnuts and two mulberries set around the fountain (planted in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Jubilee), as well as various other trees planted in the late C20. Before Fountain Court was laid out in the late C17, the west side formed part of the much more extensive Benchers' Garden.

Garden Court is approached down a flight of stone steps and is in reality a broad paved path lying between Garden Court building and the northern part of the Middle Temple Garden. At the southern end of the Court are steps, and gothic parapets in Bath stone, the remnants of the mid C19 Middle Temple Library on this site, which was bombed during the Second World War. From this position there are views south, over the garden and down to the river.

The Middle Temple Garden (formerly the Lower Garden) is approached from the east side of Garden Court. The Garden is terraced at the northern end, which is at a higher level. The southern end of the terrace is marked by two borders (of low-growing conifers and shrubs, with bedding) separated by a stone path which runs west/east from Garden Court to Plowden Buildings. To the north-west of these borders is a lawn, which runs along the west side of Middle Temple Hall and is terminated at its northern end by a bank of shrubs, retained by stone wall. There are three large rectangular rose beds on the lawn planted with red and white roses. Traditionally it was in the Temple Garden that the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster were plucked. The roses became the emblem of the War of the Roses, the civil war between the Houses of York and Lancaster. A line of late C20 trees runs up the west side of the lawn, alongside the flower beds.

Steps lead down from the west end of the terrace to an extensive sweep of lawn, which slopes down to the southern end where there is a raised gravel walk, lined by large plane trees. The southern half of the lawned area was taken into the gardens following the completion of the Victoria Embankment in 1870. The lawn is flanked by a shrubbery along the west side and is bounded by occasional trees including cherry, almond and ailanthus. On the southern half of the lawn is a large circular flower bed, planted with roses, with a sundial (1719) in the centre. This is a variation of the late C19 scheme where the sundial was further south and there were two circular beds (OS 1873). Also on the lawn is a stone statue of a boy holding a book, which was erected in 1930 in memory of Charles Lamb.

REFERENCES

Sir Christopher Hatton, New Views of London (1708), p 797

E Cecil, London Parks and Gardens (1907), pp 275-9

London Squares Preservation Act (1931), Appendix III

G Taylor, Old London Gardens (1953), pp 35-6

B Weinreb and C Hibbert (eds), The London Encyclopaedia (1983), pp 529-30

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: London 1: the City of London, (3rd edn (revised) 1985), pp 343-53

The London Gardener or The Gardener's Intelligencer 3, (1997-8), pp 39-48

Maps

Richard Newcourt, Exact Delineation ... of London, 14" to 1 mile, 1658

J Leake, Exact Surveigh ... within the ruines of the City of London, 1666

J Ogilby and W Morgan, A Large and Accurate Map of the City of London, 52" to 1 mile, 1676

Stow, Map of London (published in Survey of London, 1720 edn)

John Rocque, Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster ..., 1744-6 Richard Horwood, Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, 2nd edn 1813

OS 25" to 1 mile:

1st edition surveyed 1873

2nd edition published 1894

3rd edition published 1913

Description written: June 1998

Amended: November 1999

Register Inspector: CB

Edited: May 2000