Staple Inn

Staple Inn stands on the south side of High Holborn in the City of London. It is a part-Tudor building with a distinctive timber-framed façade and a cruck roof. The Inn dates from 1585 when it served as the wool staple where wool was weighed and taxed. It survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 despite the fire’s widespread destruction. In 1944 a Luftwaffe bomb damaged the building but it was later restored. Staple Inn is the last surviving Inn of Chancery and was designated a Grade I listed building in 1974. The Inn was originally attached to Gray’s Inn, one of the four Inns of Court. Most Inns of Chancery fell into decay during the 19th century and were either dissolved or demolished. Staple Inn is the only one to survive largely intact. It once formed an extra-parochial area and later became a civil parish with a population of just 17 by 1921. In 1994 boundary changes transferred the Inn from Camden to the City of London. Visitors find a historic internal courtyard surrounded by the timber-framed structure. The ground floor houses shops and restaurants with plainer signage to respect the building’s character. The great hall inside is used by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries for meetings. The building once appeared on Old Holborn tobacco packaging. Its switch-tailed double pump was replaced in 1937 by a mock single pump to mark the site.