Old Houses in Holborn

Old houses in Holborn, 1878. These houses formed part of Staple Inn, one the Inns of Chancery, and date from 1586. They were described by Charles Dickens as '...some centuries of age, still stand(ing) looking on the public way, as if disconsolately looking for the Old Bourne that has long run dry'. All the Inns of Chancery fell into decay during the 19th century and all were dissolved. This photograph was commissioned by the Society for Photographing Relics of Old London to form part of a permanent visual record of historic buildings threatened with alteration or possible demolition in the 1870s and 1880s. However, Staple Inn was not demolished, instead these houses were 'restored' to give the black and white half-timbered look which to the Victorian mind was what all Tudor houses were supposed to have