The Fountain Court Mulberries

Two black mulberries lean on wooden crutches either side of a fountain that has been running since 1681. They were planted for a queen's jubilee and the sources cannot agree which one. Middle Temple's own archive dates them to 1897 and Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. An independent mulberry history gives 20 June 1887, her Golden Jubilee, and adds that the planting was marked with a dinner in Middle Temple Hall. Ten years apart, both plausible, neither picked here: call the trees roughly 130 to 140 years old. Four went in together and only these two are left, the other pair removed in the 1970s. Black mulberry ages like this, going crooked and heavy limbed early, propping itself on whatever it is given, and fruiting hard regardless. Fountain Court is a small enclosed square between Middle Temple Hall and the gardens that run down toward the river, a working courtyard of the legal quarter rather than a park, and one of the quietest corners in the City. Access is real but narrow. The court and garden open to the public on weekdays, roughly 12:30 to 3pm, not on bank holidays, entered through the Garden Room off Middle Temple Lane, and they close in high winds or for private functions. Turn up inside that window and both trees are there, one on each side of the water.