Victoria Law Courts

Victoria Law Courts, built between 1887 and 1891 and designed by Sir Aston Webb and Ingress Bell, were the winners of a design competition. The building is constructed of red brick and terracotta, with a green stone tiled roof. It is primarily two storeys high, featuring a symmetrical central section and flanking wings. The left wing is L-shaped, with one gable featuring a bow window and another a tall, narrow bay with a concave-sided gable. The right wing has a gabled bay. Elaborate detailing throughout the building was executed by Aumonier based on the architects' designs.

The central section incorporates a porch with a richly decorated gable and flanking turrets, flanked by four single-storeyed bays with cross-windows and large octagonal towers with pointed caps. Behind and above this is the Great Hall, characterised by a steeply-sloping, balustraded and crested roof, topped by a centrally-placed gabled clock stage. This hall displays good Arts and Crafts detailing, including figure sculpture by Harry Bates and Walter Crane. The Great Hall's interior is a symmetrical room of five bays by three, with round-headed windows of three lights with one transom on the long sides and of five lights with two transoms on the short sides; all featuring panel tracery. The roof is of hammerbeam construction, but the rich and strong detail, now rendered in sand-coloured terracotta, is of a Spanish Plateresque style. Niches are positioned between the windows, their bases supported by putti.

Passages extend to the left and right, featuring stilted arches carrying balconied passages on the first floor. Directly ahead stands a sumptuously ornate arch with a concave-sided gable, similar to the archway to the Great Hall. A shallow, tunnel-vaulted, richly-pannelled passage leads to the courtrooms. Stained glass was designed by Walter Lonsdale, and five large, crown-like chandeliers of excellent design are present. The courtrooms themselves have good quality joinery and fittings. The smaller courts, such as Nos 1 and 3, have more modest fittings, while the larger courts, such as Nos 5 and 6, have elaborately canopied judges' chairs and originally displayed Tudor-type ceilings with pendant bosses (a feature which remains in No 5 court).