The Judges' House

The Judges' House

A townhouse designed in 1814-16 by the Greek Revival architect Henry Hakewill, constructed from sandstone ashlar under a slate roof. The building was created to provide accommodation for assize judges serving at the adjacent Shire Hall courts and as a meeting place for the Warwickshire Justices of the Peace. Extensions were added to the south in 1955 and 1963, which are not of special interest.

The original main range is oriented north-south with a three-bay, double-pile plan and two storeys over a basement. The principal elevation to Northgate Street features three bays with plain, wide pilasters at either end, a moulded cornice and blocking course. The ground floor has horizontal channelling and a central Greek Ionic porch approached by a short flight of steps with wrought-iron handrails, leading to a two-fold, six-panelled door. On either side are six-over-six hornless sash windows with stone cills. The first-floor windows are similar, set within moulded architraves with a moulded cill band running between the pilasters.

The interior retains a series of principal rooms and spaces from Hakewill's original design, though some ancillary rooms were lost when a rear wing was demolished. The principal rooms on ground and first floors feature moulded cornices, dado and skirting boards, moulded doorcases and four-panelled doors. The rear hall contains an open-well, open-string stair with moulded stone treads, plain stick balusters and a moulded, wreathed handrail set on a rounded curtail step. The stair is lit by a large round-arched window at the half-landing with moulded architrave. The High Sheriff's room to the rear has a grey marble fireplace with elegant cast-iron grate displaying classical details. The first-floor dining room occupies all three bays at the front and features a dentil cornice, elaborate doors and doorcases, and a grey marble fireplace with incised Greek key decoration. The drawing room to the rear has a similar fireplace to the High Sheriff's room. The basement includes a wine cellar with stone shelving.

Henry Hakewill (1771-1830) was a nationally significant architect, serving as architect to Rugby School, the Radcliffe trustees in Oxford and Middle Temple, and designing numerous churches and country houses during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. The original building comprised a large two-storey rear wing providing ancillary rooms and accommodation. In 1955, when Warwickshire County Council expanded its offices to the rear to provide a new council chamber, this rear wing was demolished. At the same time, the adjacent house at 7 Northgate Street was replaced by a new extension in a simplified classical style to compensate for the loss. In 1963, the building was extended further southwards, replacing two late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century houses at 3 and 5 Northgate Street. At the time of inspection in 2010, the Judges' House remained in its original use.