Paper Buildings Explained

Paper Buildings are a set of chambers located in the Inner Temple in Temple, London. They were initially constructed in 1609.^[1] Paper Buildings appear in A Tale of Two Cities and Barnaby Rudge.^[2]

On 6 March 1838, about twenty sets of chambers were destroyed, including some valuable libraries, important documents and so forth. The fire originated in the chambers of W. H. Maule MP.^[3]

Paper Buildings are on the site of Heyward's Buildings, constructed in 1610.^[4] The "paper" part of the name comes from the fact that they were built from timber, lath and plaster, a construction method known as "paperwork". A fire in 1838 destroyed three of the buildings, which were immediately replaced with a design by Robert Smirke, with Sydney Smirke later adding two more buildings.^[5] A famous resident of (at the time) Heyward's Buildings was John Selden, who was one of the original tenants and shared a set of chambers with Heyward himself.^[6]

3 Paper Buildings

John Galsworthy had chambers here from November 1894, where he wrote a short story called "Dick Denver's Idea", which was his first work of fiction.^{[7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]} MI5 was located here from 21 February 1911.^[13]

3PB (3 Paper Buildings) is a barristers Chambers which has been in existence since Christmas Day 1892. There currently are 152 full-time members, 9 of whom are King's Counsel.^[14]

14 Paper Buildings

The Common Bail Office^[15] and The King's Bench Office^[16] were located here.

References

51.5122°N -0.1093°W

Notes and References

1. Wheatley and Cunningham. "Paper Buildings" in London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions. Cambridge University Press. Page 27.
2. Stephen Halliday. "The Middle and Inner Temple" in From 221B Baker Street to the Old Curiosity Shop. The History Press. Page 52.
3. Cornelius Walford. The Insurance Cyclopeadia. C and E Layton. 1876. Volume 4. pp 77 & 78. Internet Archive.
4. Book: Bellot, Hugh. The Inner and Middle Temple, legal, literary, and historic associations. Methuen & Co.. London. 1902. 585828. p.69
5. Web site: The Buildings. Inner Temple. 4 November 2009.
6. Book: Bellot, Hugh. The Inner and Middle Temple, legal, literary, and historic associations. Methuen & Co.. London. 1902. 585828. p.70
7. James Jack Gindin. John Galsworthy's Life and Art. University of Michigan Press. Page 56. Internet Archive
8. (1968) 117 New Law Journal 893 Google Books
9. Dudley Barker. The Man of Principle: A View of John Galsworthy.Stein & Day. 1963. p 62 Internet Archive.
10. Sanford V Sternlicht. John Galsworthy. Twayne Publishers. 1987. p 29. Google Books.
11. Alec Fréchet. John Galsworthy: L'Homme, Le Romancier, Le Critique Social. Atelier, reproduced through University of Lille. 1981. p 550. Google Books.
12. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Thomson Gale. 2007. (Nobel Prize Laureates in Literature, Part 2) Page 71. Google Books
13. West, Nigel. "MI5" in Historical Dictionary of World War I Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. Page 208.
14. http://www.3pb.co.uk 3PB
15. Britton John. The Original Picture of London. 24th Edition. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green. Paternoster Row, London. 1826. Page 463.
16. Robert Crerar. The Merchant, Tradesman's and Solicitor's Book of Reference. Printed for the author and Basil Steuart. London. 1831. Page 94