Information AboutGray's Inn |
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Gray's Inn is one of the four Inns Of Court around the Royal Courts Of Justice in London , England to which Barrister s belong and where they are called to the bar. The others are Middle Temple , Inner Temple and Lincoln's Inn . It is situated in Holborn , in the London Borough Of Camden . The nearest tube station is Chancery Lane . Known colloquially as the "Northern Inn", being the furthest from the Royal Courts, Gray's is often said to have a slight Left Wing slant. It is home to many top barristers' chambers including Matrix Chambers (the human rights set of which Cherie Booth QC , the wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair , is a leading member). All student barristers have to join one of the four inns and in order to qualify as a barrister, as well as passing exams at Bar School they must complete their Inn's dining sessions (about 12 in a year). (Originally a student qualified solely by eating dinners.) The dinners are eaten in the Hammerbeam Roof ed main hall of Gray's Inn (rebuilt after the original was lost in The Blitz ) and there is a still-observed tradition that from sitting down until permission to smoke is granted nobody may leave the hall — however much they have drunk and may need to empty their bladders. After the pudding course and after the high table has cleared, 'Master Junior' (the person dining who is closest to the exit) applies to 'Master Senior' (the barrister of greatest seniority sitting under high table) for permission to smoke. Gray's is the only Inn to retain the tradition of requesting permission to smoke, under the unwritten convention that Master Junior should make his application entertaining and commensurately brief. In any case, permission to smoke is never refused. One theory is that this will prepare the student barristers for long court sessions ahead, when asking for a personal convenience break should be unthinkable; and in practice there are indeed curious stories of expedients adopted by judges, barristers and students, in Court as well as at dinner. The Banqueting Hall in South Square is a grade I Listed Building . EXTERNAL LINK |
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