Lincoln's Inn Library, London, by Philip Hardwick with Philip Charles Hardwick; additions by Sir George Gilbert Scott

Library, Lincoln's Inn

Philip Hardwick (1792-1870), with Philip Charles Hardwick (1822-1892)

Additions by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878)

1843-78

London WC2

Other Views

The Great Hall

South end of the Great Hall

Hardwick's initials and the date

Lincoln's Inn Library (II)

Photograph and text 2009 by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

On the west of Chancery Lane, near the Law Society and right behind the Royal Courts of Justice, Lincoln's Inn is one of the four London Inns of Court, along with Gray's Inn, Middle Temple and Inner Temple. Its oldest surviving building is the late-fifteenth-century Old Hall (see "History of Lincoln's Inn Fields"), so the Hardwicks' Great Hall is known as New Hall despite its crenellations, diapering, mullions and generally picturesque appearance. Lincoln's Inn Library is a matching building at the north end of the Great Hall, if anything more elaborately Gothic: see the Lincoln's Inn Fields' elevation. In 1871-2, Sir George Gilbert Scott extended the building 3 bays eastwards. As James Stevens Curl explains, "Tudor Gothic seems to have found favour for use in educational buildings, workhouses, almshouses and the like" (87n.). The Great Hall/Library complex provides a particularly fine example of the style, arguably the most impressive in the capital.

References

Curl, James Stevens. Victorian Architecture. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1990.

History of Lincoln's Inn Fields (Camden Council site). Viewed 28 October 2009.

Last modified 28 October 2009