Portpool was a manor or soke in the district of Holborn , London . It is not recorded in the Domesday Book but references to it occur from the 12th century onwards. For many years it was owned by the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral , who let it out to the Grey family. The manor house of Portpool subsequently became known as Gray's Inn , acquiring a reputation for the teaching of law.
18-536: Central London Ophthalmic Hospital, London was a hospital in Gray's Inn Road , London. Originally the hospital was opened in 1843 as Central London Ophthalmic Institution in a house near to Brunswick Square. In 1848 it moved to 238a Gray's Inn Road, was renamed as the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital and had 12 beds. By 1900 the hospital was overcrowded and an extension was built giving
36-496: A feoffment of "Portpole maner called Grey's Inn" to certain persons in trust. On 12 August 1506 Edmund Grey, 9th Baron Grey de Wilton (d. 1511) sold to Hugh Denys (d.1511), Groom of the Stool to King Henry VII "the manor of Portpoole (one of the prebends belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral), otherwise called Gray's Inn, four messuages , four gardens, the site of a windmill, eight acres of land, ten shillings of free rent, and
54-570: A goodly house there scituate, by whome builded or first begun I haue not yet learned, but seemeth to be since Edward the thirds time, and is a prebend to Paules Church in London." The name Portpool is preserved today in Portpool Lane , which runs to the east off Gray's Inn Road . Some authors have speculated, without linguistic analysis, that the "Port" in Portpool refers to a gate or
72-438: A market [1] . However, the earliest references to the name of the manor indicate that the first syllable is "Purt" ("Purtepol" c.1200 and 1203; "Purtepole" 1220 and 1309; "Pourtepol" 1316). This shows that it cannot be "port" in any sense of that word but instead a personal name, "Purta". It is therefore "Purta's Pool". Certainly, it has not been convincingly shown that "port" refers to any particular gate or market, and indeed
90-472: A world-leading oral health institution, Westminster Kingsway College , and the City University of London 's Inns of Court School of Law . The thoroughfare is first recorded as Purtepol Street in the 13th century, when the area formed part of Portpool Manor . After Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton purchased the area, his name soon came to be lent to Gray's Inn , which was founded on
108-500: Is clearly built up as far as Elm Street, although that is the limit of the map. John Rocque 's map of 1738 depicts "Grays Inn Lane" which clearly applies to the stretch from Holborn to the edge of the built up area (somewhat south of the present Calthorpe Street), but where it passes into the country it is called "Road to Hampstead and Highgate ". 51°31′26″N 0°06′56″W / 51.52376°N 0.11545°W / 51.52376; -0.11545 Portpool Documents from
126-578: The British Museum , where it remains. Hand Axe Yard, a residential development adjoining Gray's Inn Road, takes its name from the object. The manor of Portpool formerly existed in the same area as Gray's Inn , and although the manor is not mentioned in the Domesday Book it came into possession of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral and may have formed a separate estate of one of
144-518: The City . In a document of 1468 the road is called "Graysynlane, otherwise Portpole Lane". Today's Portpool Lane, which leads off Gray's Inn Road to the east, is a separate road which is not mentioned before 1641. On the "Woodcut" map of c.1561, "Greys ynne la." is shown leading from Holborn Bars to Gray's Inn , from where it becomes an unnamed track leading into the country. John Ogilby and William Morgan 's map of 1676 shows "Grayes-Inn Lane" which
162-720: The City of London boundary, passes north through the Holborn and King's Cross districts and terminates at King's Cross railway station. It is designated as part of the A5200 road . As the home of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn , one of England 's four Inns of Court , Gray's Inn Road is known as a hub for law and legal professions in London . Gray's Inn Road is home to multiple scholarly institutes, including University College London 's Eastman Dental Institute ,
180-602: The advowson of the chantry of Portpoole." The manor was bequeathed by Denys in his will to Sheen Priory , in Surrey, where he was buried, in trust for the augmentation of the Chapel of All Angels at Brentford End. After a delay of five years involving a legal dispute during which a royal licence was being sought by Denys's executors to alienate the manor to Sheen, the Priory leased "the mansion of Portpoole" to "certain students of
198-416: The 13th and 14th centuries indicate that Portpool included the present site of Gray's Inn , stretching eastwards beyond Leather Lane , northwards beyond present day Clerkenwell Road and southwards to the City boundary. Its area diminished over time as parts were sold off. The exact location of the manor buildings does not appear to be recorded, although it is assumed by most historians that they lay in
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#1732790867400216-510: The Canons. From at least the 13th century onwards it was in the possession of the Grey family, after whom Gray's Inn is named. The name "Purtepol Street" is recorded in the time of Henry III and this may be the first reference to the current Gray's Inn Road. In a document of 1299 it is called "Street of Pourtepol without London", which is appropriate as it lies only just outside the boundary of
234-535: The area of the current hall of Gray's Inn . The pool from which Portpool gets its name may have been located near the north-west corner of Brooke Street . Simon de Gardino de Purtepole left his house within Holeburne bar to his son-in-law Richard de Chygewelle or Chigwell. Chygewelle in 1294 enfeoffed the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's with the property, and they enfeoffed Reginald de Grey , who held it of them in 1307. Before 1397 Henry Grey de Wilton had made
252-678: The creation of the NHS it became to the Institute of Ophthalmology, and is now situated near to Moorfields . Two matrons of the eye hospital had both worked and trained at The London Hospital , Whitechapel , London under Eva Luckes : Gray%27s Inn Road Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road ) is an important road in Central London , located in the London Borough of Camden . The road begins at its junction with Holborn at
270-880: The facility 28 beds. It was decided to rebuild and in 1913 the Duchess of Albany opened the new hospital at 41 Judd Street, London. Eventually the hospital had 40 beds, and during the First World War cared for service men. In 1947 the hospital amalgamated with the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital and the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital and was renamed as the Central Branch of the Moorfields, Westminster and Central Eye Hospital. Following
288-692: The law", at the annual rent of £6 13s. 4d. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the benchers of Gray's Inn were entered in the King's books as the fee farm tenants of the Crown, at the same rent as paid to the monks of Sheen. John Stow , writing at the end of the 16th century, stated that beyond Holborn Bars lay "Porte Poole, or Grayes Inne lane, so called of the Inne of Courte, named Grayes Inne,
306-482: The street. By 1468, the road was known as Grays Inn Lane , or Graysynlane . Richard Horwood 's map (updated by William Faden in 1813) calls the whole stretch from Holborn to modern King's Cross "Grays Inn Lane", but by the mid-19th century it was solidified as Gray's Inn Road . Throughout its route the road keeps to the higher ground, above the valley of the River Fleet to the east. In earlier times it
324-461: Was the principal route from London to Hampstead . The area of Gray's Inn Road was clearly populated from palaeolithic times. Given the road's height above the Fleet valley, it may have formed part of an ancient trackway. A gravel bed off Gray's Inn Lane (see below) was the find spot for the c. 350,000-year-old Gray's Inn Lane Hand Axe in 1679. It was acquired by Hans Sloane and later donated to
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