Staple Inn review
It was originally attached to one of the four Inns of Court, which were training schools for London's lawyers. Most of these fell into decay and were demolished or rebuilt by the Victorians, but Staple Inn was covered over in plain plaster and survived. In the 1930s they removed all of this unsightly plaster and uncovered the black beams again, only for the Germans to come along and drop a bomb on it. Luckily for us the front facade escaped with a few minor cuts and bruises, but the old Hall and courtyard behind we're pretty much obliterated.
I’ve been here more than once…
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If you want to see a Tudor building from the time of 
But let's have a look at the front first... how cool is that! This is Elizabethan London. This is the London of 1590. When Shakespeare was strolling past here singing his sonnets Walter Raleigh was locked up 
If you head through the central arch then you'll find yourself in a pretty little cobbled courtyard. At the time of writing it's just me and a few bees, pink blossom on the trees, and overflowing flower baskets dripping with water by the doors. You'd never know it from a cursory look, but this is the courtyard that got hit by the Luftwaffe in 1941. They obviously weren't satisfied with their night's work because they pummelled it again in 1944, reducing the Old Hall to rubble. Fortunately they managed to rebuild and repair a lot of it using the salvaged stones and bones of timber from 
If you head through the next arch then you'll find yourself in another pretty little space, but this time the far end has been disfigured by an ugly modern office block. Maybe we should invite the Luftwaffe back again to erase it from existence. We'll call it compensation for what they did during the war.
