Source: BBC

By Amanda Ruggeri

It was rush hour on a weekday and I was weaving my way down the Strand, one of central London’s most famous thoroughfares. The street hummed with tourists, students and lawyers. Double-decker buses rattled. Cyclists sweated. Black cabs swerved.

Just east of the where the Strand turns into Fleet Street, beyond the 19th-century legal bookshop of Wildy and Sons, stood a small stone archway. Compared to the imposing structure above it – a timber-framed, Jacobean townhouse – it was almost unnoticeable. I turned in.

Here, on tiny Inner Temple Lane, was a hidden world, one that was lovely, leafy and serene, overlooked by graceful Gothic and Victorian buildings and patchworked with gardens and miniature courtyards.

The area, known as Temple, remains far less known to tourists than other nearby attractions like St Paul’s Cathedral or Trafalgar Square. And most of those who do find their way here don’t realise Temple’s biggest secret: this whole area was once the stronghold of the Knights Templar.

The medieval order, known for their role in the Crusades and as one of the Middle Ages’ most powerful and wealthy religious orders, lived, prayed and worked here from about 1185 up until their dissolution in 1312.

They built monastic dormitories, chambers and two dining halls – now known as Middle Temple Hall and Inner Temple Hall, though they’ve been rebuilt many times over the years – and, most famously,Temple Church.

“They lived right here,” said Robin Griffith-Jones, the reverend of Temple Church and a historian of the Knights Templar. (In a sign of how historic and traditional this area is, his official title is Reverend and Valiant Master of the Temple). “The hall of the Templars was what is Inner Temple hall now – right over there. And the priest’s house was where my house is.”

You can peek through a gate to the private garden and house of the Master of the Temple, currently Robin Griffith-Jones (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)

In 1120, Christian knights had just captured Jerusalem in the First Crusade. But even while the holy city was safe, the pilgrimage routes to get there were not. Travellers were routinely attacked, robbed and even killed.

A handful of knights took monastic vows and devoted themselves to protecting the pilgrims and their routes. In return, the king of Jerusalem gave them headquarters on the Temple Mount. The Knights Templar was born and they were soon world-renowned for their courage.

“They were a very disciplined fighting force – and hugely self-sacrificial. If there was a disaster in battle, they were decimated. They didn’t run away. They just got killed,” said Griffith-Jones.

They also became extraordinarily rich. As well as owning land and other assets, they didn’t have to pay tithes. They were also the first to issue what today we would call cheques. If a pilgrim was leaving home, they could give the Templars all the money they’d want in the Holy Land, get a promissory note in return and collect that amount when they arrived. By 1191, they were so wealthy they were able to buy the island of Cyprus.

The circular western nave of Temple Church makes it one of four round churches remaining in Britain today (Credit: Amanda Ruggeri)

Little surprise then that by the mid-12th Century they needed a grander headquarters for their London chapter. By 1185, they had built Temple Church.

Today Temple Church doesn’t seem that grand, particularly when compared to nearby St Paul’s orWestminster Abbey. The surrounding buildings dwarf it, making its dome invisible from just a short distance. The circular nave in the west, which was built first, is just 17m in diameter. There is no elaborate gold gilding, no side chapels, no mosaic or paintings.

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