Royal Courts of Justice, Chichester Street, Belfast, BT1 3JY

Royal Courts of Justice, Chichester Street, Belfast

The Royal Courts of Justice is a detached, symmetrical, multi-bay neo-classical courthouse clad in Portland limestone ashlar, built circa 1933 to the designs of James Grey West (1881–1951). It stands three storeys over a basement with an attic storey, is quadrangular on plan, and is arranged around a central courtyard with advanced corner pavilion blocks. The principal elevations face north onto Chichester Street and south onto May Street, with the east side elevation fronting Victoria Street. Together with the Parliament Building at Stormont, it was one of the last large public buildings to be constructed in a classical idiom in Europe, a deliberate architectural choice intended to convey the gravitas and dignity of the state and the law.

Design and Context

The building was designed by Sir James Grey West, an English architect articled to the Government Office of Works, who became Chief Architect of the Office of Works in 1934 and was later appointed Director of Post-War Planning during the Second World War. The Royal Courts of Justice is his only completed work in Northern Ireland. Local structural engineer Peter Hogarth of Hogarth Ltd, Belfast — who also served as structural engineer for the contemporary Ulster Museum, completed in 1929 — was appointed to oversee the execution of West's design. The builders were Stewart and Partners of Belfast, who subsequently built Stormont.

The building was constructed on the site of the former Chichester Market, which was demolished in the late 1920s to make way for it; the adjoining grain markets were not demolished until after the Courts were completed and can be seen on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1931 standing alongside the new building. The market site was purchased from Belfast Corporation for £55,000. Due to the proximity of the site to the River Lagan and the colossal size of the structure, 1,153 concrete piles were sunk 40 feet into the ground to provide adequate foundations. The steel frame was erected between 1928 and October 1929, when the foundation stone was formally laid on 19th October 1929; the estimated cost of construction at that time was £170,000. After more than three years of construction, the Courts were opened on 13th April 1933 by Lord Craigavon — James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland — and the Northern Ireland Chief Justice Sir William Moore and Lady Moore. The official opening ceremony followed on 31st May 1933, presided over by the Governor of Northern Ireland, the Duke of Abercorn. On completion, the building was valued at £11,650 in the First General Revaluation of 1935; by the end of the Second General Revaluation in 1972 that figure had risen to £15,464.

Political and Architectural Significance

The Royal Courts of Justice forms part of a group of public buildings constructed in the early decades of Northern Ireland's history following partition under the Government of Ireland Act (1920), which required the British Government to provide a Courts of Justice for the newly created Northern Ireland state. Alongside Stormont and the Ulster Museum, the building represents the state-sanctioned civic architecture of the new administration. As scholar C.E.B. Brett observed, buildings of this type, together with earlier Belfast civic edifices such as the City Hall and the Assembly Buildings, constituted the corporate architectural expression of embattled Unionism and an effort to establish Belfast as the capital of a subordinate government. The neo-classical style — employing Portland stone and giant Corinthian columns — was chosen specifically to convey the dignity and tradition of the law, and as Hugh Dixon has noted, the building demonstrates the lasting popularity of the early 18th century style of James Gibbs, the architect responsible for St Martin-in-the-Fields in London and the Radcliffe Camera at Oxford.

Exterior

The principal north elevation onto Chichester Street is thirteen windows wide with a central tetrastyle portico in antis. The portico is articulated by four Corinthian columns on rock-faced rusticated plinths supporting a continuous entablature, with responding Corinthian pilasters within the portico and three panels to the soffit. All windows across this elevation are flanked by giant order engaged Corinthian columns, and the corner pavilions are fully framed by additional pairs of Corinthian pilasters. The secondary south elevation onto May Street is similarly composed, thirteen windows wide, with a central tetrastyle portico in antis articulated by two Corinthian columns and two Corinthian corner pilasters on rock-faced rusticated plinths. The east side elevation onto Victoria Street is nineteen windows wide with advanced corner pavilion blocks detailed to match the front elevation. The west side elevation is eighteen windows wide, also with advanced corner pavilion blocks detailed to match.

Window treatment varies by storey and position. Attic-storey windows on the pavilion blocks are segmental-headed with architrave surrounds, set within semi-circular recesses with stepped keystones embellished with cartouches. First-floor windows have architrave surrounds with stepped keystones, cornices, and moulded sills with shallow apron panels. Ground-floor windows have Gibbsian-type architrave surrounds with segmental pediments and a continuous sill course. All windows are multi-pane powder-coated steel casements set in square-headed openings. A decoratively carved Royal coat of arms occupies the central first-floor window within the portico.

The central door opening to the principal north portico is square-headed with a Gibbsian-type architrave surround embellished with leaf-and-dart mouldings, a stepped keystone, and a decorative lintel cornice. The original double-leaf hardwood doors each have five panels with decorative mouldings and brass door furniture. The door opens onto a stone-paved portico approached by four nosed steps, with a pair of elaborate cast-iron lamp standards flanking the entrance. A further square-headed door opening with Gibbsian-type architrave surround, double-leaf timber doors of matching design, plain stone lintel, and multi-pane overlight is located to the west pavilion, also opening onto four nosed stone steps.

The full external walling is Portland limestone ashlar with a rock-faced rusticated plinth course. A full-span modillioned cornice runs below the attic storey with coffer panels and a full entablature enriched with egg-and-dart, leaf-and-dart, and bead mouldings. Pitched natural slate roofs are concealed behind a stone parapet with moulded coping. Decorative cast-iron hoppers bearing Royal insignia are found on the internal courtyard elevations only, with cast-iron downpipes throughout.

Courtyard Elevations

The internal courtyard elevations are symmetrical and four storeys in height in red brick laid in Dutch bond, with a three-storey block to the centre set on a north-south axis; it is possible that additional storeys were added to the central block around 1950. Each elevation has a central gabled projection. Window openings are square-headed with gauged brick flat arches, powder-coated multi-pane steel casement windows, and masonry sills, flanked by shallow brick pilasters with limestone heads. Limestone ashlar coping is used throughout. Circular stone panels to the north and south gables are inscribed respectively 'A.D. 1932' and with a Hand of Ulster carving. Circular steel windows light the oculi of the east and west projections. The former courtyard has been partially infilled with late 20th century flat-roofed single-storey structures.

Interior

The interior was finished in Italian Travertine marble. The most impressive space is the central hall, 140 feet in length, with marble coats of arms at each end. The hall also contains marble war memorials paying tribute to members of the Bar and the solicitors' profession killed in the First and Second World Wars.

Setting and Boundary Features

The building fronts onto Chichester Street to the north, with the east side elevation fronting Victoria Street and the secondary elevation facing May Street. A small lawned area lies to the north. Both the north and south elevations are enclosed by decorative iron railings on a balustraded Portland limestone wall surmounted by decorative cast-iron lamps. Elaborate cast-iron gates face each pavilion block on both the north and south elevations, framed by further decorative cast-iron lamps. The east elevation is enclosed to the street by a double-height Portland limestone wall with continuous mouldings, presenting a defensive character to the streetscape; this boundary wall on Victoria Street was erected as a permanent security measure following repeated targeting of the Courts during the Troubles, along with the construction of neo-classical sentry boxes along Chichester Street in 1992. Bitumastic-paved parking areas lie to the east, south, and west.

A detached single-storey Portland limestone gate lodge is located to the northwest. It has symmetrical elevations with a continuous cornice below the parapet, square-headed window openings with multi-pane steel casement windows, and recessed central square-headed door openings to both the north and east elevations, each flanked by Doric columns with double-leaf hardwood panelled doors and multi-pane overlights.