Inner London Sessions Court

Inner London Sessions Court

County of London Sessions Court, built 1914-1921 and extended 1954-58. Designed by WE Riley, who was the LCC chief architect. The south-east extension was designed by Hugh Bennett and Edward Sheppard, also for the LCC. A further block to the east, built in 1974 by Bennett, is not of special architectural interest.

The building has a brick structure faced with Portland stone and roofed with grey Westmorland slate. The 1950s extension employs brick and reinforced concrete. The main entrance elevation presents a shallow U-shaped plan, with a similar U-shaped plan to the left return.

The exterior features a rusticated ground floor, with the first floor treated as a 'piano nobile' where the windows are set under cornices or segmental pediments. The second floor is treated as an attic storey. On the main entrance elevation, the corners are articulated by quoins, and the forecourt is filled in at ground-floor level by a rusticated range, at the very centre of which is a round-arched and heavily keyed entrance beneath a broad pediment. The left return shows less ornamentation but maintains the grand civic manner of the main elevation, with a trio of windows at the centre set under cornices and a pediment. The rusticated ground floor is repeated on this return.

The interior contains many grand spaces of authentic design. The public hall at the main entrance is a double-height rectangular hall with a segmental barrel-vaulted roof and wall piers, with a wood gallery to the first-floor stairs. Courts 1 and 2 are arranged on a square plan, each with a Diocletian window and dome to the rear, positioned either side of the centre axis. Committee rooms and offices throughout feature handsome wood panelling, while corridors are finished with segmental barrel-vaults and other original decorative finishes. Of particular note is an early 17th-century chimneypiece in the Justice's Room. The new courtrooms (Nos 3 and 4) are panelled in light-coloured oak with red leather seat coverings and feature a geometric canopy above the judge's throne, preserving many authentic features and finishes. Between the two courtrooms lies a hall with a lively abstract-patterned floor and a dramatic steel and timber helicoidal staircase providing access to the consulting rooms on the first floor.

The exterior bears carved panels executed by R Bentley Claughton in 1956, located next to the JP's entrance on Harper Road. This entrance is adjacent to a dedicated car park and walled garden. Claughton also carved the Coat of Arms on the main block of the Sessions House.

A court has occupied this site since 1791, when the Surrey County Sessions House, designed by George Gwilt the Elder, was erected. Further additions were made in 1853 and in 1870-80. Following the Local Government Act of 1888, the connection between the Newington Sessions House and the County of Surrey was severed. After the LCC held meetings in both Newington and Clerkenwell, it was decided to build a new structure on the Newington site. The main block was originally flanked by two wings that formed an architectural approach from the Causeway, but these were demolished around 1923 to make way for a ventilation shaft for the Northern Line. The centre block remains substantially as Riley designed it, except that the courtroom in the centre, which was used for civil proceedings, was cleared to make access for the new courts in 1958. This was one of Riley's last works for the Council. Following bomb damage in 1941, an extension comprising two new courtrooms was planned and subsequently constructed.