Lincoln's Inn: Stone Buildings

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London 1905 Brass Nautical Sextant & Black Antique -nautical collection
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W. J. Loftie added to the incomplete work of Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, with this look at the Stone Buildings:

The garden extends along the east side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the New Square occupying the south portion, the new hall and library the middle part, and the west part of Stone Buildings facing the northern part.

A terrace divides them, and there is a gate into the Fields, the roadway leading north to Great Turnstile and Holborn.

North of the Old Buildings and the chapel is Stone Buildings, in a handsome classical style, with a wing which looks into Chancery Lane near its Holborn end, and is half concealed by low shop-fronts.

The history of the Stone Buildings is connected with that of the new hall and the library.

Hardwick, one of the last of the school which might be connected with Chambers, the Adams, Payne, and other architects of the English Renaissance, was employed to complete Stone Buildings, begun by Sir Robert Taylor, before the end of the eighteenth century.

Hardwick was at work in 1843, and his initials and a date, "P. H., 1843," are on the south gable of the hall.

The new Houses of Parliament had just set the fashion for an attempt to revive the Tudor style, and Hardwick added to it the strong feeling for proportion which he had imbibed with his classical training.

This gable is exceedingly satisfactory, the architect having given it a dignity wanting in most modern Gothic.

It is of brick, with diagonal fretwork in darker bricks, as in the gate tower.

The library had been removed to the Stone Buildings in 1787 from a small room south of the old hall, and, more accommodation being required, Hardwick designed a library to adjoin the new hall.

The two looked very well, the hall being of six bays, with a great bow-window at the north end.

The interior is embellished with heraldry in stained glass, carved oak, metal work, and fresco painting.

At the north end, over the daïs, is Mr. G. F. Watts' great picture, "The School of Legislation."

The hall is 120 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 62 feet high.

The roof of oak is an excellent imitation of an open timber roof of the fifteenth century, and is carved and gilt.

The windows were filled with heraldry by Willement, and show us the arms of the legal luminaries who have adorned Lincoln's Inn, many of whom are also represented by busts and painted portraits.

The hall is connected with an ample kitchen, and a series of butteries, pantries, and sculleries of suitable size.

Next: Eminent members of Lincoln's Inn: Sir Thomas More