The County Court

The County Court is a building constructed between 1908 and 1914 by F W Lacey and H A Collins. It is made of red brick in Flemish bond with Portland stone ashlar and has a graduated slate roof. The structure is two storeys high and consists of 11 bays, designed in the Edwardian Baroque style. The facade is symmetrical, with bays 2 and 10 projecting forward and made of ashlar, while bays 1 and 11 are recessed and feature lower cornices.

The ashlar dressings include a plinth with a rock-faced lower portion, channelled angle pilasters, a portal, architraves, an eaves band that returns on bays 1 and 11, and a cornice. The central 7-bay section has steps leading up to a projecting portal with double doors, flanked by narrow windows. To the right of the portal is a foundation stone dated 1912, inscribed with "FIAT JUSTITIA." Ionic pilasters support a full entablature that features a royal coat-of-arms in a broken semi-circular pediment, along with a flag-pole. The windows are 12-pane sashes set in architraves with cornices and keystones.

The flanking bays each have a full-height recessed archway containing windows, which are pedimented on the ground floor. The outer bays are blind on the ground floor but have tripled sashes at the eaves and are topped with separate hipped roofs. The main roof is hipped and includes a central Ionic copper cupola, with corniced ashlar stacks flanking the cupola and at the ends, all positioned in the front roof pitch.

Inside, the entrance hall features a terrazzo floor, attached pilasters, and a dentilled cornice on a compartmented ceiling, with stained glass windows. An imperial stone stair with a moulded wooden handrail rises from the hall, accompanied by decorative panels on the iron balustrade. A large Venetian-style stair window has Ionic pilasters and swags over the central window, and at the top of the stairs, there is a Venetian-style archway with a royal coat-of-arms on the balustrade. There is a linked mid-20th century extension to the south, which is not of special interest.