Knights Templar

The Story

The building itself — Grade II listed — is one of the finest bank-to-pub conversions in London. Built in 1865 by F.W. Porter as the Union Bank of London, in Portland stone with a slate roof and a stately High Renaissance design of extraordinary richness: three storeys, basement and dormered attic, with a splayed corner entrance bay on Chancery Lane and a twelve-window front to Carey Street. The loggia treatment to Chancery Lane runs through successive Tuscan, Ionic and Corinthian orders in coupled columns — the whole thing capped with heavy cast iron area railings and stone ball finials. The original banking hall survives largely intact, its Renaissance detailing forming an improbable backdrop for a Wetherspoon pint. The Knights Templar closed 17 March 2023 and reopened under the name Last Judgement — the building endures, even if the name has changed.