Assize Courts

LINCOLN

SK9771NW CASTLE HILL 1941-1/8/64 Assize Courts 08/10/53

GV II*

Assize courts. 1823. By Sir Robert Smirke. South entrance porch early C20. Ashlar with slate roofs and 4 coped ashlar side wall stacks. Crenellated Gothick style. EXTERIOR: chamfered plinth, eaves bands, parapets, crenellated octagonal corner turrets. 2 storeys, 9 bays. Pointed arched windows with hoodmoulds. Projecting centre, 3 bays, has a central four-centred arched doorway with multiple flanking shafts, and above, three 2-light windows. Above them, in the parapet, the Royal arms. On either side, an arcaded passage, 5 bays, ending in a square pavilion with a single lancet. In each passage, five 2-light windows, and at each end, a door with a lamp bracket above it. Above, on either side, 3 smaller lancets. North and south ends have buttresses and 5 single lancets. South end has a hipped single storey porch, L-plan. Rear elevation has 2 wings, 3 bays, roofed parallel to the main range, and flanking a lower centre. All have parapets. The inner gables of the wings have each 3 lancets with latticed iron glazing bars. INTERIOR: entrance has 3 chamfered pointed arched openings to the central stairway. The outer arches have glazed screens. Both courtrooms have stepped stone floors, Gothick friezes with blind arcading and shafts above, and cross beamed ceilings with dogtooth decoration. Criminal Court (No.1) has a moulded cornice with angel corbels. Civil Court (No.2) has corbels and frieze only above the judge's seat. Both courts have arcaded panelled enclosures for the magistrates and ogee canopies over the judges' seats. Above, panelled galleries with C20 octagonal piers. C20 panelled wooden fittings and seats. No.1 Court has the C19 dock. (Buildings of England : Lincolnshire: Pevsner N: Lincolnshire: London: 1989-: 506).

Listing NGR: SK9743271900