Site: Middle Temple Law Library

    The Middle Temple Law Library provides research support to their members, who consist of barristers, student barristers, and magistrates. 

    I loved the history and beauty of this place! The list of members includes Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, and several signers of the Declaration of Independance. It was also the site of the first known performance of Twelth Night, which occured when Shakespeare was a member of the Lord Chamberlain's Players. 

    The site was originally used by the Knights Templar. When they were dissolved in the early fourteenth century, the English court was moving to Westminster. The court lawyers needed housing, so they were lodged in the former Knights Templar site. 

    The Middle Temple has had a library since Tudor times. In 1641, a member left his personal library and an endowment to increase the library. The "new" library was built in 1841 and destroyed by a bomb in WWII. Consequently, the current library was built to be bomb-proof. 

    I enjoyed the armorial panels belonging to past readers and treasurers. A couple of my favorite mottos were "Think Clearly Feel Deeply" and "Treat All With Kindness." 

    The library has eight full-time and one part-time staff. They specialize in American, Irish, European Union, and eccelisiastical law, as well as British law. They use the Mays classification method.

                                            The stairs to the original library, now leading nowhere.

                                                                The Dining Hall

                                                              The Middle Temple Library

    Several of us got lunch in the Middle Temple cafe, and service was very slow!