The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London, the furthest away from the Royal Courts of Justice and the smallest of the four (the other three are Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple, and Middle Temple).
All barristers are affiliated to an Inn of Court. The Gray’s Inn development provides a library, bar, dining hall, training and conferences for its members and students. The Inn also has large grounds that are open for public access during the day and are often used for corporate events. However, most of the the Inn’s buildings are let to barristers and commercial tenants in order to fund the Inn’s charitable activities.
Hidden on the north side of Holborn, Gray’s Inn has substantial estate predominantly set around two squares, South Square and Gray's Inn Square, and its gardens, known as 'The Walks'. The exact date of the establishment of the Inn is not known; however, the earliest reference to it appears in 1370. In the late 17th century it was devastated by calamitous fires and was left ruined for years.
In 1802 rebuilding work began to restore damaged buildings and by 1825 The Raymond Buildings was completed, which was where Charles Dickens first started work at the high desk.
The Inn was unfortunate to face further destruction once again from bombing in 1941 during the Second World War. Much of the buildings we see today are the result of that damage with rebuilding taking place in the late 1950s, although to retain the architectural heritage of the site the rebuilding was carried out in the same style.
Selectaglaze were first contacted to assist with a sizeable secondary glazing installation at Gray’s Inn back in 1999, when one of the buildings was being converted to a members’ only apartment hotel. A total of 65 windows were treated with enormous Series 60 tilt-in vertical sliders, to match the off-set primary single glazing. The units were installed to improve the thermal insulation, as the original glazing was cold and draughty.
In 2017 another 40 secondary glazed units were installed to areas used as residential accommodation for barristers and trainees alike. A blend of Series 10 horizontal sliding units and Series 20 vertical sliding units were installed to provide thermal insulation as well as noise insulation for those apartments overlooking the noisy and busy Gray’s Inn Road.
The Estates team refurbishing key areas of the estate progressively which have been identified as vulnerable and requiring upgrading to bring them up to 21st century standards. With such a high demand for space, the renovations are not as rapid as they would like. However, the Inn’s Tim Bell comments;
“Having worked with Selectaglaze for a number of years, whilst upgrading various areas of the estate, there is no doubt that their secondary glazing is of high quality and definitely raises the thermal and noise insulation of the original glazing, which can be noticed almost immediately. With much more work planned over the next few years, we look forward to continuing our relationship with them.”
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