HOLBORN: Walking Tour HOLBORN: This short 1km tour investigates the inherited character of an area of Holborn in London. It highlights elements, both new and old, that help create a special sense of place. Explore the streets, buildings and spaces to understand the story of how and why the area’s character has developed the way it has. In turn, you can look to the area's future, considering how modern developments are responding to their historic surroundings. The different approaches that have taken is useful for thinking about issues of design in context, planning and regeneration. You can navigate the tour by following the map and the key points along it. Short descriptions with images are provided for each. Please note Gray’s Inn Court is a private space and parts have restricted opening hours. INTRODUCTION Holborn is an intriguing and ancient place, called home by some of London’s most famous residents, including the author Charles Dickens. Some of the earliest evidence for human activity in the city was found here, in 1679, when a 350,000 year old hand axe was discovered on Gray’s Inn Road. It’s along this street, at the junction of Baldwin’s Gardens that the tour begins. A NOTE ABOUT SAFETY! The tour follows a number of busy streets in Holborn, and special care should be taken when crossing them. Many view points along the tour are taken from the carriageways themselves and each point does not necessarily present a safe place to stop. As such, find a safe place to pause before continuing with the tour. ! Following the tour as a pair or small group of people will be more fun and safer. LAYSTALL ST KING’S MEWS JOHN ST JOHN’S MEWS LEATHER LANE GREAT JAMES ST THEOBALDS ROAD PORTPOOL LANE GRAY’S INN ROAD C VERULAM STREET JOCKEY’S FIELDS D A NN 0 m I ’S I G RAY A B G R LEIGH PLACE BEDFORD ROW D E N BALDWIN’S GARDENS S PRICETON ST E GRAY’S INN ROAD: A Here the two sides of the street have quite public street, facing towards inner courtyards. RED LION ST different characters. Looking away from Further north towards Theobalds Road, a G F H Holborn itself the right hand side has different coherent row of Georgian terraces (Verulam styles of buildings standing shoulder to shoulder. Buildings) sit back from the road behind a tall They date from the Victorian Period to recent brick wall, again serving to distinguish FULWOOD PLACE BROOKE ST BROOKE SANDLAND ST times. Their doors and windows face the street, themselves from the surrounding area. WARWICK COURT BROWNLOW ST bringing a sense of activity. By comparison, the Much of Gray’s Inn was rebuilt after J building line opposite is more continuous and bomb-damage in the Second World War, but the coherent, made of up broader properties with narrow brick and Georgian style windows were K access limited to a single entranceway. The reinstated, maintaining the Inn’s traditional story is an ancient one. Gray’s Inn is one of the architectural appearance. It shows a HIGH HOLBORN L four Inns of Court, professional associations for sympathetic approach to redevelopment that barristers in England and Wales. The plot it we will encounter later on. occupies dates from the 13th century if not earlier, and has continued to influence how the SOUTHAMPTON BLDGS area has developed since. FURNIVAL ST FURNIVAL The high status and private nature of Gray’s Inn CHANCERY LANE is shown by the restricted access to it, achieved only through a handful of narrow gateways. WHETSTONE PARK Buildings along its edge turn their backs on the LAYSTALL ST KING’S MEWS JOHN ST JOHN’S MEWS LEATHER LANE GREAT JAMES ST THEOBALDS ROAD PORTPOOL LANE GRAY’S INN ROAD C 1888 1905 VERULAM STREET JOCKEY’S FIELDS D B NN 30 m I ’S I G RAY A B G R LEIGH PLACE BEDFORD ROW D E N BALDWIN’S GARDENS S PRICETON ST E GRAY’S INN ROAD 2: A Gray’s Inn Road is an ancient route, once the RED LION ST medieval thoroughfare from London to G F H Hampstead. Comparing two maps of the area from 1888 and 1905, there is a key change in the development of the road. The entire FULWOOD PLACE BROOKE ST BROOKE SANDLAND ST eastern side has been demolished, and the WARWICK COURT BROWNLOW ST street widened to make way for an electric J tram. The broad street allowed for the introduction of an avenue of London Plane K trees, the canopies of which now overhang the road. London Plane trees were planted in HIGH HOLBORN L London from the mid-17th century onwards. They thrive in urban environments, offering shade and being capable of withstanding heat and cold, wet and dry, compaction of the soil SOUTHAMPTON BLDGS and pollutants found in built up areas. Together FURNIVAL ST FURNIVAL they make up over half of all trees in the City of CHANCERY LANE London. WHETSTONE PARK LAYSTALL ST KING’S MEWS JOHN ST JOHN’S MEWS LEATHER LANE GREAT JAMES ST THEOBALDS ROAD PORTPOOL LANE GRAY’S INN ROAD C VERULAM STREET JOCKEY’S FIELDS D C NN 70 m I ’S I G RAY A B G R LEIGH PLACE BEDFORD ROW D E N BALDWIN’S GARDENS S PRICETON ST E GRAY’S INN ROAD 3: A The eastern building line of Gray’s Inn Road, ANSWER: The buildings share the same scale RED LION ST rebuilt quickly at the turn of the 20th century, and position at the back of the footway, G F H retains several of its Edwardian buildings, such as maintaining the strong building and roofline. the apartment houses either side of Baldwin’s Parts of the modern building are made of brick, Gardens. Despite later rebuilding the diverse but are rendered white above a dark slate grey FULWOOD PLACE BROOKE ST BROOKE SANDLAND ST architecture of the street has a number of shared ground floor. Windows have broad horizontal WARWICK COURT BROWNLOW ST characteristics such as their scale, material orientations to upper levels compared with the J construction and the vertical orientation of vertical openings of the Edwardian apartments. windows. ‘A refurbished late 20th century The activity at street level has decreased in K development at the junction of Verulam Street, front of the right hand building, with a single 60 Gray’s Inn Road, follows the proportion and entranceway and fewer, smaller windows. This HIGH HOLBORN L massing of the historic building next door, but is creates a higher ‘solid to void ratio’ at street otherwise very different. level. This term is used to describe the amount of ‘void’ in a building façade (e.g. windows and doors) compared to the amount of ‘solid’ (e.g. SOUTHAMPTON BLDGS QUESTION: How do the two buildings the walls). The higher the ratio, the more FURNIVAL ST FURNIVAL pictured above differ in character? defensive a structure typically appears. The CHANCERY LANE buildings also clearly differ in their use of decoration, with number 60 far more utilitarian WHETSTONE PARK than it's historic neighbour. LAYSTALL ST KING’S MEWS JOHN ST JOHN’S MEWS LEATHER LANE GREAT JAMES ST THEOBALDS ROAD PORTPOOL LANE GRAY’S INN ROAD C VERULAM STREET JOCKEY’S FIELDS D D NN 218 m I ’S I G RAY A B G R LEIGH PLACE BEDFORD ROW D E N BALDWIN’S GARDENS S PRICETON ST E GRAY’S INN ROAD WINDOWS: A Looking more closely at the windows, or the floors of adjacent buildings, indicates that there is RED LION ST ‘fenestration’ of buildings, we can often get a a tall internal space. The stained glass and shallow G F H good impression about the age and status of a arched shape of the window gives a strong building, as well as its use. Near the carriageway indication of the use of the building and going entrance of Gray’s Inn a window is set apart from through the passageway you can see the style of FULWOOD PLACE BROOKE ST BROOKE SANDLAND ST every other. The stone tracery and large scale of fenestration is replicated. The windows set the WARWICK COURT BROWNLOW ST the window, which spans the equivalent of two Inn’s chapel apart from all other buildings around J it due to its special function and status. It’s essential to bear in mind that as the surrounding K area develops, the material construction and architectural form of new windows help Gray’s Inn HIGH HOLBORN L Chapel continue to distinguish itself. There has been a Place of Worship at this site since before the Inn was established here; a document of SOUTHAMPTON BLDGS 1314/15 mentions a chapel serving the manor of FURNIVAL ST FURNIVAL Portpool, the property of John de Grey, which CHANCERY LANE later became the premises of Gray’s Inn. The present chapel is mostly (other than the chancel) WHETSTONE PARK a post-war addition to the site. LAYSTALL ST KING’S MEWS JOHN ST JOHN’S MEWS LEATHER LANE GREAT JAMES ST THEOBALDS ROAD PORTPOOL LANE GRAY’S INN ROAD C VERULAM STREET JOCKEY’S FIELDS D E NN 270 m I ’S I G RAY A B G R LEIGH PLACE BEDFORD ROW D E N BALDWIN’S GARDENS S PRICETON ST E GRAY’S INN COURTYARD: A We are now within one of the two main courtyards Agas Map of 1561. The experience of moving RED LION ST of Gray’s Inn. Note how the buildings engage with around this space remains similar to as it was G F H the open space, with fine stone door surrounds and then, with narrow walkways, carriageways and consistent horizontal lines of timber sash windows alleyway leading from one space to another.