A story of Staple Inn on Holborn Hill

Staple Inn is a rare survivor. Its distinctive Tudor façade, courtyard, Hall and enclosed garden remain an historic attraction on the walking tours of hidden London. It has stood firm and even risen again in the face of great events on its doorstep — plague, civil war, the Great Fire, riots, and even direct bomb attack at the end of World War II. It has survived internal dangers too from fire and infestation threatening near-collapse of the timbered Holborn frontage.

The Inn’s history goes back further than its sixteenth-century features. It began as a covered market and customs depot for wool and other commodities. It drew in legal minds to mediate in trade disputes, a Society of Staple Inn formed around 1415 and it became an Inn of Chancery for students of law. When its legal importance declined, the Society sold up and the Prudential Assurance Company stepped in to buy the Inn at auction in 1886. The Institute of Actuaries was the first new tenant in 1887 and Staple Inn has become its professional home along with patent agents, surveyors, accountants, legal chambers and shops.

Arthur Tait, Secretary-General of the Institute of Actuaries from 1991 to 1997, presents this update to the history of Staple Inn in a light-hearted, affectionate study that is fresh with lively detail. He seeks to ‘broaden the canvas by suggesting the wider context in which life at Staple Inn developed; to give some clues about what life was like there; and to take advantage of recent research, discovery and writing to bring the story up-to-date’. Staple Inn has drawn observations from figures such as Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Anthony Trollope yet this is a local history of wide appeal to visitors and all in Holborn and the City who care to imagine the effect of great historical events on daily lives.

Colour-illustrated throughout, this book offers an attractive visual invitation to readers ‘to see and hear the ghosts of the past encouraging us into the future’ while still suggesting intriguing comparisons with the present scene.