The Law Courts

The Law Courts, formerly Wolverhampton Town Hall and now Crown Courts, were built between 1867 and 1871 by E. Bates. The building is constructed of ashlar with brick returns, and has slate roofs. It is two storeys with an attic, and comprises 15 bays, with the centre bay and the two bays at each end projecting. The design is in the French Renaissance style.

The building has a rock-faced plinth, a band over the ground floor, giant angle pilasters and a top entablature with a balustraded parapet. The ground floor has segmental-headed windows with keystones and sash windows. The first floor has round-headed casement windows recessed between flat pilasters, featuring archivolts and keystones. The central window is a Venetian window with enriched spandrels and a large keystone, accompanied by a bracketed balcony displaying the town arms. A panelled frieze sits above. The segmental-headed central entrance has an architrave, keystone, and a later lamp bracket. It features paired panelled doors. The central bay has a clock to the parapet, topped with a segmental pediment and six flanking urns. A domical vault is present with iron cresting and two enriched bulls’ eyes. Flanking stacks have cornices. Round-headed dormer windows, each with a segmental pediment and flanking urns, are located in the end bays, topped with pavilion roofs having iron cresting and flanking stacks.

The returns are similar in design to the first two bays, with blind windows. The remainder is brick, with windows in round-headed recesses above the basement, which is due to the slope of the ground. Three bays to the right return feature large windows that formerly illuminated the council chamber.

The interior features an octagonal entrance hall with piers having Corinthian capitals, a coved ceiling, and a lantern with a moulded surround. An elliptical arch to the entrance has a coffered soffit, and a wood balustraded balcony sits above. Entrances to the left and right have panelled pilaster strips and friezes, topped with consoled segmental pediments and paired panelled doors. A staircase leads off the hall to the rear. The balusters are square, leading to swept-out handrails. A statue of G.B. Thorneycroft, the 1st mayor of 1851, was moved from Wolverhampton Cemetery in 1874 and is housed here. The other faces include niches with coffered vaulting, and the floor features a central panel of encaustic tiles. Court No. 2, formerly the council chamber, has panelled walls and fittings, along with a coved canopy and a central domical vault to the dais, with stained glass to the windows and Ionic columns to the balcony. There is also a panelled Mayor’s Parlour with a ribbed ceiling, an open pedimented doorway, and Ionic pilasters to the overmantle of the fireplace.