Lincoln’s Inn was once the property of the De Lacie, Earl of Lincoln. It became an Inn of Court in 1310. The fine new hall—worth seeing—was opened in 1845. The Chapel was built in 1621–3, by Inigo Jones. He also laid out the large garden in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, close by, in 1620. Lord William Russell was beheaded here in 1683. In Lincoln’s Inn are the Chancery and Equity Courts.
Graves Inn, nearly opposite the north end of Chancery Lane, once belonged to the Lords Gray of Wilton. It was founded in 1357. Most of its buildings—except its hall, with black oak roof—are of comparatively modern date. In Gray’s Inn lived the great Lord Bacon, a tree planted by whom, in the quaint old garden of the Inn, can yet be seen propped up by iron stays. Charles the First, when Prince Charles, was an honorary member of Gray’s Inn, and Bradshaw, who tried him, was one of its benchers.
Sergeant’s Inn, Chancery Lane, is what its name denotes—the Inn of the sergeants-at-law. Sergeants Inn, Fleet Street, is let out in chambers to barristers, solicitors, and the general public. The last remark applies to the other small Inns of Chancery in and about Holborn and Fleet Street.
Till the new Law Courts are erected in Central Strand, London has no Courts of Law well built or convenient. The Westminster Courts are little better than wooden sheds. So are the Lincoln’s Inn Courts. But they still are worth a visit. At the Old Bailey, near Newgate, is the Central Criminal Court, for the trial of prisoners accused of crimes committed within ten miles of St. Paul’s. Nominally, this court is free; but practically, a small douceur is always extorted by the ushers for a place. In the other courts this practice of ‘tipping’ is less common. The Bankruptcy Court, in Basinghall Street, the Clerkenwell Sessions House, the County Courts, and the Police Courts, are other establishments connected with the administration of justice; but the business of the first will shortly be transferred westward.
The Record Office.—Connected in some degree with the Courts of Law and Equity, is the New Record Office, Fetter Lane, where is deposited a vast body of unprinted documents belonging to the state, of priceless value, including the far-famed Doomsday Book; they having been previously scattered in various buildings about the metropolis. Apply to the deputy-keeper for an order to inspect any but state papers of later date than 1688, for which the Home Secretary’s special order is requisite.
Prisons.—Newgate, the chief criminal prison for the city and county, in the Old Bailey, was a prison in the new gate of the city as early as 1218. Two centuries after it was re-built, and in the Great Fire (1666) burnt down. It was re-constructed in 1778–80; its interior burnt in the Gordon ‘No Popery’ riots in 1780; and its interior again re-constructed in 1857. Debtors are no longer confined here; the few who come under the new law—which has almost abolished imprisonment for debt—being sent to Holloway Prison under the new law. Till public executions were abolished, criminals came out for execution in the middle of the Old Bailey, through the small iron door over which is suspended a grim festoon of fetters. They are now hanged privately inside the jail. The condemned cells are on the north-east side of Newgate. To view the prison, apply to the sheriff or the lord mayor. The chief debtors’ prison was the Queen’s Bench, in Southwark. It is now a Military Prison. The City Prison, Holloway, a castellated structure, was built in 1855, as a substitute for other and overcrowded jails in London. Other prisons are the House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, capable of holding 1,200 prisoners; the House of Correction, at Wandsworth; the House of Correction, Westminster; Millbank Penitentiary, near the Middlesex end of Vauxhall Bridge, which could, if wanted, hold 1,200 prisoners, and cost £500,000; Pentonville Model Prison; Female Prison, Brixton; Surrey County Jail, Horsemonger Lane, on the top of which the infamous Mannings were hanged in 1849; and the House of Detention, Clerkenwell, which the Fenians tried to blow up. The last prison is for persons not convicted.
BANKS; INSURANCE OFFICES; STOCK EXCHANGE; CITY COMPANIES.
Bank of England.—This large establishment is situated north of the Royal Exchange; the narrow thoroughfare between being Threadneedle Street, in which is the principal front. This is unquestionably the greatest bank in the world. The present structure was mostly the work of Sir John Soane, at various periods between 1788 and 1829. About 1,000 clerks, messengers, &c., are employed here, at salaries varying from £50 to £1,200 per annum. The buildings of the Bank are low, but remarkable in appearance. In the centre is the principal entrance, which conducts to an inner open court, and thence to the main building. The Dividend and Transfer Offices, with which fund-holders are most concerned, lie in the eastern part of the building. Thus far the place is freely open to visitors. The whole buildings and courts include an area of about eight acres. The teller’s room shews a scene of great activity—clerks counting and weighing gold and silver, porters going to and fro, and crowds of tradesmen and others negotiating business at the counters. The other and more private parts of the Bank can be seen only by an order from a director. The most interesting departments are the bullion-office, in a vaulted chamber beneath—where there commonly are some 14 to 17 millions in bullion, as a reserve—entering from one of the many open courts; the treasury; the apartments in which the notes of the Bank are printed; and the weighing-office, where coin-balances of exquisite construction are used. In the printing department there is a large steam-engine, which moves printing-machines, plate-presses, and other mechanism—the whole being in beautiful order, and forming a very interesting sight. The Bank is guarded at night by its own watchmen, and a detachment of Foot Guards.
Joint-Stock and Private Banks.—Some of the handsomest modern buildings in London are those belonging to the Banking Companies. The London and Westminster, the London Joint-Stock, the Union, the City, the Australian, and numerous other Companies, have two or more establishments each, some as many as half-a-dozen—the head bank always being in the busy centre of trade, the ‘City.’ Some of these are elegant structures; and all are planned with great skill in reference to interior arrangements. The private bankers, such as Glyn, Barclays, Lubbocks, Coutts, &c., rival the companies in the architectural character of their banks; and some of their establishments, such as Child’s, near Temple Bar, are curious old places. Many have lately been rebuilt in a substantial and handsome style.
Insurance Offices.—These form another extensive group, which has conduced much to the improved street appearance of modern London. All the best conducted Life and Fire Insurance Companies are wealthy; and they have devoted part of their wealth to the construction of commodious and often elegant offices. The County, the Royal Exchange, the Sun, the Phœnix, the Amicable, the Equitable, the Imperial, are among the most noted of these insurance offices. The chief buildings are within a small circle, of which the Royal Exchange is the centre; another group is about Fleet Street and Blackfriars; and a western group lies in and near the Regent Street line.