The Temple has been occupied by lawyers since the early fourteenth century, when the Knights Templar were driven out and their order disbanded. King’s Bench Walk is so named because it was once the shady promenade which stood in front of the Office of the Court of King’s Bench. That Office burned down several centuries ago, but the name of the street has remained.
Lawyers’ chambers were first erected on the site of what is now 7 King’s Bench Walk in the sixteenth century. Those buildings were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, and a new building was constructed, financed by Sir Thomas Robinson, after whom it was named. Sir Thomas had succeeded in 1657 to the lucrative office of Chief Prothnotary of the Common Pleas. Unfortunately, Sir Thomas perished when leaping from the window of his building on 2 August 1683, when it too was assailed by a fierce fire.
The present building was constructed in 1685, the last year of the reign of Charles II. The building continued to be called Sir Thomas Robinson’s building and became known as 7 King’s Bench Walk only at the end of the eighteenth century. Since its construction, the building has been occupied by a succession of intriguing individuals.
One early non-legal occupant was the miniature and crayon painter John Dixon, appointed ‘Keeper of the King’s Picture Closet’ by William III. In 1791 the ‘Cellar Chamber Left’ of 7KBW became home to William Tidd, whose Practice of the Court of King’s Bench can be regarded as the White Book of its day and was referred to by Uriah Heep in reverent terms in Dickens’ David Copperfield.
In 1819 Serjeant Wilde, later Lord Chancellor Truro, took a lease of ‘one pair north’ at 7KBW. He was to make his name the following year when he defended Queen Caroline against the capital charge of adultery. Wilde’s cross-examination of the Queen’s foreign servants was regarded as masterly, and the Queen – who had the sympathy of the public - was acquitted although her infidelities were in fact notorious.
By the mid-nineteenth century, 7KBW was occupied by about fifteen legal men – barristers, solicitors, conveyancers and special pleaders. Among them was Sir Harry Bodkin Poland, one of the most famous prosecutors of his day. He was joined in chambers at 7KBW by his life-long friend Hardinge Stanley Giffard, who went on to become Lord Chancellor and is better known as Lord Halsbury. Giffard and Poland appeared together when they successfully defended Governor Edward John Eyre, the notorious former Governor of Jamaica, against a charge of murder.
The modern chambers now at 7 King's Bench Walk owes its origin to the merger of two long-established commercial sets of Chambers, 3 Pump Court and 7 King's Bench Walk, in 1967. The former set was founded at 4 Brick Court in 1893 by Sir Richard Henn Collins (later Lord Collins and Master of the Rolls) and counted Lord Denning among its members. It moved to 3 Pump Court in 1952. The origins of the set at 7 King's Bench Walk are older and stretch back into the nineteenth century. Former members include Lord Brandon.
In more recent years, members of Chambers have included Lord Goff, Lord Hobhouse, Lord Mance, Lord Justice Longmore, Mr Justice Tomlinson, Mr Justice Cooke and Mr. Justice Flaux.
Chambers still includes amongst its members Adrian Hamilton Q.C., who was Head of Chambers from 1970 to 1997, having first come to Chambers in 1949. The present Head of Chambers is Gavin Kealey Q.C.
