Old Shire Hall and Magistrates Court

This building comprises two distinct parts: a former Shire Hall rebuilt around 1750 and remodelled in the early and mid-19th century, now used as Magistrates and Crown Courts; and the Old Shire Hall, built 1906-7 to the designs of A A Hunt.

Materials and Plan

The court building has red brick walls laid in Flemish bond and a slate roof. The Old Shire Hall has red brick walls laid in English bond, yellow stone dressings, and a clay-tile roof. The court building is rectangular in plan, laid out on an east-west axis at the corner of Honey Hill and Raingate Street. The Old Shire Hall is roughly T-shaped in plan, attached to the north side of the court building, providing two light-wells between the two buildings. Together they form a roughly rectangular-plan building.

The Court Building (c.1750)

The court building stands two storeys high with a slate-covered roof, hipped to the east and gabled to the west. The roof has two mid-19th century rectangular-plan flat-roofed lanterns to the apex and an early-20th century chimneystack to the north slope. The walls were constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond in the mid- to late 18th century. When the building was remodelled and extended in 1841-2, a pediment, rendered Doric entablature, and rendered engaged pilasters were added to the west gable, though the majority of triglyphs have since been removed from the cornice.

The elevations show evidence of numerous blocked or altered window and door openings with segmental arches. The west elevation shows evidence of a central door opening, presumably blocked when the extension was added to the north in 1906-7. The east and west elevations each have a tripartite window opening on the upper level: that on the west elevation is framed by engaged pilasters, while that on the east elevation has a fluted surround. The south elevation retains four mid- to late-18th century window openings on the upper level, each having a six-over-six pane timber sash window. The east window has been blocked internally and the second from east has a pronounced quoined surround. The ground floor has a variety of window and door openings to the basement.

The Old Shire Hall (1906-7)

The Old Shire Hall was constructed in the Edwardian Baroque style between 1906 and 1907, with eleven bays and three storeys over a raised basement. The roof is generally hipped with a clay-tile covering and tall red brick chimneystacks. The walls are constructed of red brick laid in English bond over a rusticated yellow stone basement, with yellow stone dressings throughout, including quoins, window and door surrounds, a cornice and plinth course to the first floor, a broken stringcourse to the second floor, and pediments over.

The front (north) elevation has eleven bays arranged as three-bay pavilions and a single bay either side of three central bays. The three central bays have a rusticated ground floor with engaged Ionic columns and a cartouche under an open segmental pediment, giant engaged Ionic columns and pilasters spanning the first and second floors, and an open segmental pediment to the central bay of the second floor, framed by a larger triangular pediment. The central entrance has double-leaf timber-panelled doors with a small timber pediment and plain round-arched overlight. The side pavilions have a segmental pediment over the central bay of the second floor.

The west elevation has four bays, with an open pediment over the two central bays, which slightly break forward. The south bay of the ground floor has an oeil-de-boeuf window over a round-arched door surround containing a tympanum carved 'PUBLIC / ENTRANCE', and double-leaf half-glazed doors. The raised basement has Diocletian multi-paned sash windows, and the upper floors have single-pane sash windows. The rear (south) and east elevations are constructed of red brick without any dressed stone.

Interior: The Court Building

The court building contains courtrooms: Court 1 to the west end and Court 3 to the east end.

Court 1 is roughly square in plan and retains a number of features from when the building was remodelled in 1841-2, including: a dentilled cornice; a viewing gallery on the west wall with an arcade of three segmental arches on square pilasters; a raised platform for the magistrates on the east wall, with a canted timber-panelled balcony incorporating a late-19th or early-20th century magistrate's desk; and timber panelling to the walls, with a pediment on carved consoles behind the magistrate's desk. The furniture appears to be a mixture of mid-19th century and early 20th century. It is likely that the courtroom may have originally been accessed from a central door on the west wall, and a door was introduced to the west end of the north wall when the building was extended in 1906-7. It is probable that the location of the dock and access from the basement may have also been reconfigured in the early 20th century, and the furniture of the dock was certainly replaced in the late 20th or early 21st century.

Court 3 is rectangular in plan with an apsidal west end. The south wall retains one 18th century window with deep reveals and a mid-19th century fluted surround; evidence of another blocked window opening is visible to the east. The east wall has tripartite sash windows in a mid-19th century fluted surround with paterae, and carved consoles to the two central mullions. The apsidal west end has a raised platform, 19th century timber panelling incorporating a central pediment on carved consoles, and a timber-panelled balcony with a late-19th or early-20th century magistrate's desk. The courtroom has a mixture of furniture including mid-19th century tiered stalls; an early-20th century tiered viewing gallery to the east end with a mixture of early-20th century benches and late-20th century chairs; and a late-20th or early-21st century dock, the access route to which appears to have been reconfigured in the early 20th century. The viewing gallery has double-leaf doors and a fluted door surround, possibly relocated to the viewing gallery when the building was extended in 1906-7.

Court 1 and Court 3 are interconnected by retiring rooms and magistrates' rooms on the upper ground floor, with access from the main staircase of the early-20th century extension. The basement level under the courts contains a number of cells and interview rooms, with evidence of disused cells and access routes to the courtrooms, presumably reconfigured in the early 20th century.

Interior: The 1906-7 Extension

The extension to the north by A A Hunt of 1906-7 is roughly T-shaped in plan, with a central stair winding around a late-20th century elevator, a light well to the east and west of the stair, and offices to the north of a corridor overlooking the churchyard to the north.

The central entrance from the north elevation has a flight of steps to half-glazed doors in a classical timber surround to the stair hall. The main stair has cantilevered cast-concrete steps with a mixture of metal scrolled and plain stick balusters under a molded wooden handrail, a panelled plinth, and round-arched stained-glass windows to the east and west walls. At each landing of the stairs there are round-arched openings to the corridors to the east and west, flanked by engaged pilasters and containing half-glazed doors. The half-landing between the first and second floors retains an early-20th century Venetian window with stained glass insignia of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk and Sudbury within a foliated margin.

The basement, upper ground, first and second floor levels retain their early-20th century plan form, plain cornicing, and doors, however some fireplaces in offices have been blocked. The file stores in the basement retain their early-20th century fire-resistant security doors, tiled floors and glazed tiled walls. The two waiting rooms and Court 2 on the first floor, and the central room of the second floor, retain ornate cornicing, half timber-panelled walls and carved wooden fire surrounds. Court 2 is certainly the grandest room, with engaged Ionic pilasters and a round-arched timber-panelled fire surround to the centre of the east wall.

The south-east corner of the early-20th century extension contains a stair hall with cantilevered cast-concrete steps, metal stick balusters under a molded wooden handrail, and glazed-tiled walls. The stair hall has blocked door openings to the first and second floors of St Margaret's House to the east, and a door to the viewing gallery of Court 3 to the south.