The oldest of the four Inns of Court (along with Inner Temple, Middle Temple and Gray’s Inn), where, from the fifteenth century, young men trained to be lawyers. Sir Thomas More, one of the more famous Tudor members of Lincoln’s Inn, was admitted as a member in 1496 and John Donne joined as a student in 1592. Lincoln's Inn was the setting for many plays in the sixteenth century, including Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors in 1594.
The Old Hall has been re-modelled extensively since its original construction, but it has some sixteenth century glass and its original timber roof, rediscovered in the early twentieth century. The Gatehouse from Chancery Lane, built between 1517 and 1521 with a set of oak gates from 1564, was heavily restored in the 1960s but retains the arms of Henry VIII and Sir Thomas Lovell who fought for Henry VII at Bosworth, and gave money towards the building at Lincoln’s Inn.
The Inn precincts are open to the public on weekdays and the buildings can be visited by organised tour.
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