---
title: "Grays Inn Chapel, Holborn"
description: "Located in Holborn, Greater London. Built Rebuilt c.1955–60 after 1941 bombing; on a chapel site recorded 1314–15. Grade II. Post-war Gothic style."
category: "Church"
tags: ["Church","Church of England","Greater London","Holborn","Grade II","Gray's Inn","Edward Maufe"]
canonical: "https://thebritishgazette.com/post/grays-inn-chapel-holborn"
pubDate: "2026-09-06T01:50:26.595Z"
dateModified: "2026-09-08T18:59:10.207Z"
location: "Holborn, Greater London"
country: "England"
county: "Greater London"
town: "Holborn"
address: "Grays Inn, Holborn, Greater London, WC1R 5ET"
postcode: "WC1R 5ET"
built: "Rebuilt c.1955–60 after 1941 bombing; on a chapel site recorded 1314–15"
architect: "Sir Edward Maufe"
denomination: "Church of England"
grade: "II"
style: "Post-war Gothic"
materials: "Brick with stone dressings; tile roof with octagonal bellcote"
website: "https://www.graysinn.org.uk/chapel"
openingHours: "The chapel is a place for quiet reflection open to all every day and for services on certain Sundays in the year. We are a Church of England foundation, but people from all Christian denominations, and those from all faiths and none, are always welcome."
listEntryUrl: "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1322148"
gridReference: "TQ 310 817"
accessNotes: "Non-accessible toilets in church. Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby. Accessible toilets in church"
---

# Grays Inn Chapel, Holborn

Gray’s Inn Chapel stands on the south side of Gray’s Inn Square, Holborn. It is a Grade II Church of England foundation of the Inn, open daily for quiet reflection and for services on certain Sundays.

## Overview

The Inn’s history records a chapel on the manor of Portpoole by 1314–15, when the Prior of St Bartholomew, Smithfield, agreed to provide a priest. The building was reconstructed in the 1690s, restored in a late Gothic style in 1893, and destroyed by bombing in 1941. Historic England lists the present chapel as a reconstruction of about 1955 by Sir Edward Maufe, architect of Guildford Cathedral, incorporating seventeenth-century fabric and extended eastwards with a new roof and bellcote. It is brick with stone dressings and a tile roof, a five-bay aisleless rectangle with an octagonal west bellcote and clock.

The interior has a three-bay nave and narrower two-bay chancel under a concrete ribbed roof. Reset glass of about 1895 includes the east window commemorating four Archbishops of Canterbury associated with the Inn (Whitgift, Juxon, Wake and Laud) and nave windows of the same date. Chancel stalls, altar, pulpit, lectern and maple pews (the last donated by the Canadian Bar Association) are by Maufe, around 1955. A medieval holy-water stoup survives by the door.

## Further Information

- [Historic England list entry 1322148](https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1322148)
- [Gray's Inn: History of the Chapel](https://www.graysinn.org.uk/the-inn/history/the-historic-estate/the-chapel/)