The Temple
Cliona O’Tuama’s office Hamilton House overlooks The Temple.
The Temple is named after the Knights Templar, a religious order founded in the Middle Ages to further the Crusades who came to this site, then outside the City walls, in 1160. They were disbanded in 1308 but not before they had constructed a great complex of monastic buildings of which only the Temple Church survives.
Some time in the 14th century the buildings were taken over by lawyers and there they have remained, today organised into two of the four Inns of Court, Middle Temple and Inner Temple.
The Temple Church is one of five circular churches in England based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The round nave was begun in 1160 and is one of the earliest Gothic structures in England.