Temple Garden
Crown Office Row, via Tudor Street Gate
Inner Temple Lane Gate and Middle Temple Lane Gate
London
EC4Y 7HL
T: 020 7797 8243
E: abrunsendorf@innertemple.org.uk
Visitor Information
Open: 12.30-3pm Mon-Fri (times may vary)
A haven of tranquillity situated between the Thames and the hubbub of Fleet Street within the historic precincts of the Inner Temple. The impressive three-acre site includes sweeping lawns, many unusual and ancient trees and spectacular herbaceous borders. History buffs will should certainly pay a visit; parts of the garden date back to the era of the Knights Templar when it was an orchard.
The scene from Shakespeare's Henry VI, in which Richard Plantagenet plucks a white rose and John Beaufort a red rose at the outset of the Wars of the Roses, is reputed to have occurred in the garden, and this otherwise undocumented event is commemorated by a rose bed alternately planted with the roses representing the Houses of York and Lancaster.
A boardwalk along the Thames embankment side of the gardens is lined with plane trees planted in 1871 and offers excellent river views. Be sure to combine a visit to the garden with an exploration of the surrounding courtyards, where the likes of Pepys, Dickens and Thackeray have strolled, and to the beautiful 12th century Temple Church.