The history of Gray's Inn in mediaeval times is almost undocumented. Fire, the archivists' great enemy, was probably responsible for the loss of the Inn's pre-Tudor records.  There is, however, a document of 1314 which records the assumption by the Prior and Convent of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, of responsibility for the provision of a priest to serve the chapel of the manor of Portpoole which was at the time in the occupation of the de Greys family, but which became the premises of Gray's Inn.  

A decree of the Court of Augmentations, which dealt with the dispersal of monastic lands, shows that this obligation remained at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries.  And the records of the Inn, which run continuously from the sixteenth century, demonstrate that there has been in the Inn throughout the period to which they relate a chapel served by one or more clergy.

The present chapel also contains by its north door, the incomplete remains of a mediaeval holy water stoup.  And the relevant existing records proceed upon an unexpressed assumption that the chapel stands where the chapel has always stood. It is,  therefore, reasonable to assume that the Inn has had a chapel in active use and sited where the present chapel stands from the time of its establishment.

The present chapel was built in the years following the Second World War to the designs of Sir Edward Maufe to replace a building which had suffered extensive war damage.  The damaged building was in the form of an extensive restoration carried out in 1893 in a late gothic style, which in its turn replaced an amalgam of eighteenth century and earlier work.

Until 1574 the spiritual needs of the Inn were met by a chaplain: an easily recognizable successor to the pre-reformation priest for whose provision the priory of St. Bartholomew had been responsible.  In 1574, however, the first Preacher to the Society was appointed, in recognition, no doubt, of the increased importance ascribed by the reformed church to preaching.  There continued to be a chaplain, but he was never again regarded as of primary importance.  In due course the chaplain's place was taken by a Chapel Reader, whose principal responsibility was to conduct the daily services which took place in chapel to the end of the eighteenth century.  Although the number of services in chapel was gradually reduced from the middle of the eighteenth century onward, the office of Reader was not abolished until the time of World War II. 

The Preacher, however, is now the only minister appointed to serve in the Inn.  It is interesting, and not un-amusing, to note that in the eighteenth century the burden which might otherwise have rested on the preacher was eased not only by the ministrations of the Reader, but also by the appointment of an "afternoon preacher".  His status was unquestionably inferior to that of the Preacher and his task was to preach, as his title indicates, at evening prayer.  Then, as now, it was more fashionable to go to church in the morning.