Courthouse

Magistrates' Court and attached former police station on Northgate in Bridgwater, built in 1911 by the Borough Surveyor's Department with late 20th-century alterations. The building is constructed in red brick laid in English bond with stone dressings, a string course and cornice in Neo-Baroque style. Tall gable stacks comprise alternating bands of brick and stone, and the hipped, tiled roof is topped by a louvered cupola and finial.

The magistrates' court fronts onto Northgate with the police station attached to the left rear. The exterior presents a single-storey, symmetrical front elevation of five bays, with the first and fifth bays breaking forwards. The central bay contains the principal entrance with an integral porch featuring a round-headed doorway with moulded keystone, an elaborate architrave including free-standing Ionic columns, and an open segmental pediment adorned with a carved shield of arms, swags and garlands. Banded brick pilasters flank the window openings to bays two and four, while stone pilasters flank those of bays one and five and the central doorway. Bays two and four contain pairs of flat-headed windows on each side of the entrance, fitted with stone eared architraves and keystones. The two outer bays feature pointed open pediments with round-headed tripartite sash windows with keystones above. All windows are sashed with glazing bars. A commemorative stone set within the right-hand bay is inscribed "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY H.W. POLLARD ESQ. J.P. MAYOR OF BRIDGWATER AUGUST 3RD 1911". A stone modillion cornice runs along the front and continues along the left side elevation, which has a double-doored public entrance with moulded stone-dressed surround and rounded fanlight above. The two-storey police station is built of brick with pebble-dash treatment to the first floor and a pitched, tiled roof with external stacks, one comprising alternating bands of brick and stone. Rubbed brick lintels span the window openings, some with ashlar keystones. Original casement windows survive.

The interior of Court One retains high-quality Edwardian courtroom fittings, including oak panelling, segmental pedimented door cases to the public and magistrates' entrances, and oak furnishings comprising a magistrate's bench and fixed benching for public seating areas. A large tripartite sashed window lights the rear wall. A dentillated cornice and decorative raised cartouches surmount a compartmented vaulted ceiling with large rectangular roof lights. Court Two has been refurbished but retains the original plasterwork cornice above a modern suspended ceiling. The front entrance provides access to the magistrates' retiring room via a small vestibule with decorative plasterwork and flooring. The retiring room, positioned at the front of the building, preserves original features matching the standard of Court One: oak doors and architrave with decorative plasterwork treatment to ceiling and cornice, and doorways leading to both courts. The police station contains plain corridors and offices, with a cell block that is largely original; two of the original cells survive, retaining white glazed brick lining throughout. A linked late 20th-century extension to the rear and right side of the original courthouse is not of special interest.