This walk should be done on a weekday as the nearest underground stations are closed on Sundays and several areas within the Inns are closed at the weekend.

Turn left out of Temple underground station, go up the steps and turn right into Temple Place, which leads (via a car park entrance) to Inner Temple. Turn left up the steps to Fountain Court.

The splendid Elizabethan hall and the adjacent gardens are occasionally open.

Continue straight on beneath the archway following the sign to Lamb's Buildings into Middle Temple. Go up the steps to the left of the building ahead to find Temple Church, famous for its effigies of 13th-century Crusader knights. Leave Temple by the alleyway adjacent to Dr Johnson's Buildings.

At the end is the doorway to Prince Henry's Room, a rare Elizabethan survivor with a fine 17th-century interior.

Cross Fleet Street, turn left and then right alongside the monumental Royal Courts of Justice into Bell Yard. At the end of Bell Yard turn left and, by Legastat printers, turn right into New Square, the heart of Lincoln's Inn.

Lincoln's Inn's splendid hall (to the left) isn't open but you can visit the chapel (to the right), built in 1620.

Continue through the Inn and exit right at the corner of Stone Buildings. Cross Chancery Lane, turn right, then go left into Southampton Buildings, which leads to Staple Inn.

This is a former Inn of Chancery (a prep school for the Inns of Court); note its Elizabethan façade on High Holborn.

Cross High Holborn, turn left, then, by the Cittie of York pub, go right into Gray's Inn. Duck beneath the arch to the left of the hall (closed) to Gray's Inn Gardens. Return to High Holborn for Chancery Lane tube.