But no official comment on price tag or suggestions that inns are getting back into vocational training game
Only a few days remain to comment on proposals currently before London’s Camden Council that would launch a massive building programme at Lincoln’s Inn.
The council has set a deadline of 3 September for a consultation on plans to create an ambitious three-storey library and a subterranean education and training area at the historic inn.
Representations of how the development will take shape have appeared recently online. At the forefront above ground is a squat brick library and administration building. To make way for the addition, the existing under-treasurer’s house will be demolished.
The below ground centre piece is a proposed two-level subterranean training facility, the highlight of which will be a glass ceiling looking up to the existing East Terrace.
Indeed, the state-of-the-art education and training bunker has spawned the most interest, with sources close to the inn telling Legal Cheek that ultimate plans are even more ambitious.
It is understood that the development is likely to signal the return of the Inns of Court to the post-graduate vocational education market, as it will be home to a new Bar Professional Training Course.
But for the time being, inn officials are keeping their powder dry in relation to formal comment on that speculation. Previously the inn has stated that “the intended use of the proposed building is not as a law school but state of the art space to provide advocacy training to our student, pupil and barrister members”. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the inn yesterday said that the development “will significantly increase capacity at the library for our growing collection of legal texts and documents”.
Apparently, in an increasingly digital world, only the Inns of Court require more space for print publications.
The spokesman declined to reveal the budget for the project or details of how it is being funded. Work is scheduled to kick off next May, but officials will not comment on a timetable for completion.
The spokesman continued:
These essential improvement and development works will enhance the inn’s status as a place of training and education for barristers.
Which takes us on to the architects’ drawings themselves.
Most entertaining is the depiction of the anticipated appearance of the internal view of the East Terrace “educational suite” (pictured above).
Note the man and woman on the left. Clearly they can’t be barristers as the two are shaking hands, albeit, bizarrely, with left hands…
Previously
A new law school is being built in a bunker under Lincoln’s Inn to deliver a not-for-profit BPTC [Legal Cheek]