The Hall and attached railings, South Square

This is a banqueting hall rebuilt in 1556–58, retaining earlier fabric. It was externally remodelled in 1826 and 1897, then restored in 1948–51 under Sir Edward Maufe following major Second World War bomb damage. A buttery was added to the west end in 1971–72 to the design of Erith and Terry.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in English bond with darker burnt bricks and some traces of diapering. It has Portland stone dressings and a clay tile roof. The hall stands above an undercroft. Externally it has five bays, internally six bays. There is a screens passage at the west end with a gallery above. Porches occupy the westernmost bays on the north and south sides. The single-storey buttery (kitchen) at the west end stands above a basement.

Exterior

The facing brickwork has been restored, particularly at the upper levels. Five bays are divided by offset buttresses. The crow-stepped gables, although restored, are an early feature. The plain parapets date from Maufe's restoration and replace an eaves cornice. On the south side, a much-restored porch has a stone tablet carved with a griffin, the badge of Gray's Inn, above the door. On the north side is a porch with a keyed round-arched doorway, built as a servery by Maufe on the site of a porch removed in the 1930s and later adapted again as a porch. The east bay of the north elevation has a large bay window with four transomed lights on the face and two on the canted sides, all with cinquefoiled heads and three-centred heads to the lower lights. The other windows are three-over-three light mullion-and-transom with drip moulds. The windows are described by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England in 1925 as 'restored'; the stonework may date from the 1826 remodelling or later. The east and west gables each have a large four-centred arched window with five pointed lights and two transoms. The bay window on the south side was added by Maufe. Stone mullioned windows to the basement date from the post-war restoration. The roof has a hexagonal lead lantern with pinnacles. Area railings on the north side have Gothic pattern heads.

The buttery is in a Georgian Gothic style, constructed of red brick with Portland stone dressings and crenellations. Two-inch bricks form the main structure and three-inch bricks the parapet and blind windows, suggesting a 16th-century building Gothicised in the early 19th century. Broad ogee windows have three lights with Y tracery; the window on the west elevation is flanked by blind ogee windows. The three pinnacles along the west parapet were designed on those of the Abbot's Lodging at Combermere Abbey, Cheshire (remodelled 1814–20).

Interior

On the north side of the screens passage is a 16th-century doorway with moulded jambs and a four-centred arch set in a square head. The left-hand spandrel is carved with the arms of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk (1484–1545), brother-in-law to Henry VIII. On the south side is a similar arch without carving. The hall has a dais at the high (east) end. The oak hammer-beam truss roof follows the form of the original, with six bays and carved drop finials set diagonally. The spandrels below the hammer beam have Gothic tracery. At the west end is an elaborately carved 16th-century oak screen of five bays divided by Ionic columns whose shafts are enriched with strapwork relief. Each bay has a round arch with a scrolled key. The second and fourth bays have panelled double doors with strapwork decoration and glazed radial fanlights; the others have panelling of similar decoration and carved lunettes in the tympana. The spandrels are carved with recumbent figures of Victory. The entablature is enriched with strapwork and jewel ornaments. Above the cornice is a second enriched frieze. Above each column a terminal figure supports the gallery rail. Above each bay is a separate entablature and scrolled pediment. The screen is believed to post-date the 1556–58 rebuilding, although stylistically it could belong to that date. According to tradition, it was a gift of Elizabeth I, the Inn's patron.

The north, south and east walls are lined with timber panelling to sill level, replacing panelling of 1706 destroyed in the bombing. The panels are hung with the armorial bearings of successive Treasurers. The windows have extensive heraldic stained glass, the earliest dating from 1476, reinstated after the war. The undercroft has been adapted for services and storage and is clad in modern finishes. The buttery is entered from the screens passage via a modern four-centred arch. The interior serves as a kitchen and has no decorative treatment.

History

Gray's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court, the principal legal societies of England and Wales. The Inns' dates of origin are obscure, but they are thought to have emerged in the later 14th century. Gray's Inn stands on the site of the Manor of Purpoole, the property of the de Grey family. The hall was 're-edified' in 1556–58 at a cost of £863 10s 8d. The medieval Inn was progressively rebuilt from the late 17th century, hastened by a series of fires in the 1680s, and the hall is the only building with earlier fabric to survive. Students resided in the Inn and attendance at Dinner (lunch) and Supper in Hall was compulsory. Among the many prominent 16th-century Inn members were Thomas Cromwell, Sir William Cecil and Francis Bacon, who became Treasurer and Dean of the Chapel and who laid out the garden Walks to the north west. Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors was first staged in the hall on 28 December 1594.

The hall was remodelled and stuccoed in the Gothic style in 1826, with a crenellated parapet. In 1897 the stucco and crenellations were removed. Gray's Inn suffered extensive damage in an incendiary bomb attack on 11 May 1941, which left the hall in ruins. Its magnificent hammer-beam roof was destroyed, but a number of fittings including heraldic glass and coats of arms had been removed for safekeeping. The 16th-century screen, already dismantled, was rescued as the building burned. A set of detailed drawings of the roof, undertaken as a precaution in the First World War, provided the basis for its reconstruction under Sir Edward Maufe (1883–1974), who undertook extensive restoration work at Gray's Inn. In 1971–72 the buttery was added to the west end of Gray's Inn Hall to the design of Erith and Terry.