Gardens of Middle Temple * (including Fountain Court, Elm Court, Pump Court, Church Court, Brick Court, New Court)

Site on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens, for Register Entry see https://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list

The Honourable Societies of the Inner Temple and of the Middle Temple are two of the four Inns of Court, along with The Honourable Societies of Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn (q.q.v.). Note: on EH Register these are now two separate sites: Middle Temple and Inner Temple. It is possible that gardens have been on this site since the Knights Templar established themselves here in c1160 when they moved from Holborn but Temple Church (q.v.) is only surviving building from that time. In the C14th the property was leased to students of the law by the Knights of the Order of St John, who had succeeded to the property by order of Parliament in 1324 after the Knights Templar were suppressed by the Pope. Middle Temple Hall dates from Elizabethan times, begun in 1562 when Edmund Plowden was Treasurer of the Inn, and was central to the life of the Inn. Here Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' was first performed in 1602 and may have been written for this particular audience. In 1608 the Temple land was granted by a Charter of King James I to the Benchers of the Inner and Middle Temple, 'their heirs and assigns for ever, for the habitation and education of the students of law'.

The main open areas surviving from early gardens are those of the Middle Temple and Inner Temple, extending west-east for 240m along the Embankment; Fountain Court to north-west of Middle Temple Garden, and King's Bench Walk to north-east of Inner Temple Garden, this latter used largely as a car park today. Temple buildings were badly bombed in World War II when Lamb Building was lost, its site now Church Court. The present Middle Temple and Inner Temple Gardens both have extensive sweeps of lawn, enclosed to the south by a raised east-west walk, lined by notable mature planes, with railings along the outer boundaries. The gardens were already renowned for their roses in Shakespeare's time and he set the dispute that led to the War of the Roses here (Henry VI Part 1, Act 2). By the mid C15th the Temple buildings and gardens had been separated into the Inner and the Middle Temple although formal division took place later in 1732; the division roughly followed the line which divided the consecrated land to the east (Inner Temple) and the unconsecrated land to the west (Middle Temple). Middle Temple Gardens and buildings were reworked in the mid to late C17th, the gardens enclosed with brick wall in 1640s to preserve them from flooding by the Thames at high tide.

By the late C17th the gardens included the Benchers' Garden on the site of the western portion of the present Fountain Court and extending south and north, the Hall Court to the east, a terrace to south of the Middle Temple Hall and the main garden below the terrace with grass plats and formal rows of trees. In 1681-82 Fountain Court was formed on the north side of Middle Temple Hall, originally paved with Purbeck stone and with a fine central fountain of 1681, trees and walks; a parapet wall overlooked the lower garden. The fountain is reputedly the oldest permanent fountain in London; in Dickens' 'Martin Chuzzlewick', it was here that Ruth Pinch meets John Westlock. Fountain Court has mature planes planted mid-C19th, chestnuts and, near the fountain, two mulberry trees planted in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Jubilee, also a reminder of a plantation attributed to James I that had originally been planted closer to the river. It was repaved with flagstones in 1999 replacing an earlier C20th gravel surface.

Middle Temple Garden, formerly called the Lower Garden, is terraced in the north; the last major change came in 1870 when Victoria Embankment was created which doubled the area of the garden and the overall layout shown in OS 1873 remains little altered today. In the southern half of the lawn is a large circular flower bed with sundial of 1719 in the centre, originally further south when there were two circular beds. On this lawn is a statue of a boy holding a book erected in 1930 in memory of Charles Lamb. The lawns are bounded by occasional trees - almond, flowering cherry, ailanthus - and rise northwards to terraced bedding displays below Middle Temple Hall. There is a notable herb garden close to the south of Middle Temple Hall, and a small bed to the west of the Hall contains among other plants the Roses of York and Lancaster. Steps lead up to Fountain Court.

Within the Middle Temple precincts are various courtyards, some of which are landscaped. Elm Court has a formal garden with fountain, and a plaque on the wall referring to Fig Tree Court. Brick Court has a number of trees and Pump Court is paved, and has trees. Church Court, shared by both Inner and Middle Temple, is paved and enclosed with Farrars Building with cloisters to the west. It adjoins the Master's Garden and Temple Church of St Mary (q.v.). The Inner and Middle Temple Gardens were exempted from the provisions of the London Square Preservation Act, 1931 on the undertakings of the Benchers to preserve their Gardens (and Squares) as permanent open spaces.

The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.