Staple Inn

2, Holborn Bars (WC1) Believed to derive its name from having been originally an inn or hostel of the merchants of the (wool) staple. (Reference: Thornbury's Old and New London, vol. II, p. 575) Purchased by the Benchers of Gray's Inn in 1529. Here was John Bunyan's famous book-shop. "With its sixteenth-century houses fronting noisy, modern Holborn, and its charming, quiet courtyard, with its trees and the restful seat, the early eighteenth-century houses also, each with its date over the doorway, the old hail, and the prettily-restored garden and fountain." (Salaman's London Past and Present, p. 116)