Buttery At Inner Temple Hall

TQ 3181 SW CROWN OFFICE ROW EC4 Inner Temple Buttery at Inner Temple Hall

627/7/113 04-JAN-1950

GV II*

Buttery to former hall. Probably C14 restored after bomb damage c1950. Stone rubble with asWar cornice, quoins plinth and window dressings. Flat roof Two storeys. North side retains at lower level a blocked pointed arched opening and one blocked four-centred arched opening. Above is a c1950 triple casement with leaded lights. West side has two c1950 round-headed casements with leaded lights to first floor and two c1950 rectangular windows with pivoting leaded lights to ground floor, the left hand one with lower cill. South front has one c1950 round-headed window with pivoting lights to first floor and two square lancets. Ground floor has two square c1950 pivoting casements and two similar lancets. Interior has first floor buttery (16x14,feet) roofed with a quadripartite vault with hollow-chamfered ribs which spring from the floor level. The crypt below has a similar vaulted roof and a C15 stone fireplace in the west wall with moulded jambs and four-centred head with blank shields in the foliated spandrel. Above the fireplace is a reset stone bracket of c 1500 carved with an angel holding two shields, one a chevron charged with a molet between three lions' heads razed, the other five palets on a chief three lozenges. West wall also has a small cupboard with a rebated arched head. The buttery was to a C 14 hall, probably of the Knights Templars dispersed in 1308 who had two halls in the Temple. By 1324 their property had been transferred to the Knights Hospitallers who merely drew an income from/the land. Lawyers are known to have occupied the site by 1381 during Wat Tyler's rebellion as there is a record of their lodgings and records being destroyed in the rebellion. The hall was rebuilt in the C 19 and following damage during the Second World War again rebuilt in 1952. The Buttery is one of only a handful of C 14 secular stone buildings in Greater London of which most examples are Royal Palaces. [Pevsner BOB London :1 P345.]

Bibliography 6384 Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England (English Heritage), Part 17 Greater London

Listing NGR: TQ3122181008