Crown Courts

Crown Courts, Bearland, Gloucester

Assize, quarter sessions and county courts, now crown courts. Built in 1816 by Sir Robert Smirke for the county magistrates, constructed in conjunction with the nearby Shire Hall on Westgate Street. The building is of ashlar with a slate roof and is designed in a severe Classical style.

The building comprises an axial block containing two full-height semicircular court rooms, each with backing central suites of judges' chambers and service rooms. These are enclosed within a ground-floor ambulatory corridor. The entrance passage from the Shire Hall leads into the corridor at the north end of the main axis. At the south end, an entrance porch containing steps rises to corridor level, projecting from the block between flanking porters' rooms. Above the corridor, a semicircular public gallery serves each court room, reached by stairs at either end. The basement contains cells and offices.

Facing Bearland, the exterior presents a symmetrical apsidal end with a polygonal plan of nine equal facets in two storeys. The faceting expresses the ambulatory corridor at ground-floor level and the tall gallery above. Raised bands run at gallery-floor level and below the shallow coped parapet. The single-storey projecting entrance porch with flanking porters' rooms has a continuous cornice aligned with the raised band on the main block. The porch carries a shallow parapet above its cornice, while each flanking room has a taller parapet or blind attic capped with cornice and blocking course. The porch entrance is a large plain semicircular arched opening containing a wooden fanlight with radiating glazing bars and double fielded panel doors between fixed side panels. Each porter's room has a sash window with glazing bars (3 by 4 panes). On the ground floor of each facet in the main block, a 3 by 4 pane sash window lights the corridor. On the first floor, the central facet and each alternate facet have arched windows with glazing bars (4 by 5 panes) featuring a central side-hung casement and radiating bars in the head, while the remaining facets have blind plain semicircular niches of similar size. The northern polygonal end displays similar details.

The southern court room features a judge's bench raised within a wide segmental-arched recess with a coffered soffit. The curved gallery wall behind alternates niches with windows. Most interior fittings were renewed in the early 20th century. The north courtroom was not inspected at the time of listing.

A 20th-century single-storey addition on the west side is not considered of special interest.

This is a good example of the more developed form of courtroom plan, with separate courtrooms and hall.