Beaumaris Courthouse

Beaumaris Courthouse is an early 19th-century Gothic building comprising a main single-storey courthouse with a two-storey south-west porch, transepts, and a polygonal east end, set around Mona Place. The walls are rendered and painted white, with a slate roof and rendered chimney stacks on the south-west porch and north transept.

The exterior displays characteristic Gothic detailing. Most windows are small-pane hornless sash windows with Gothic intersecting glazing bars, fitted with wooden shutters. The principal east elevation facing Mona Place features a large three-light elliptical window with broad wooden intersecting mullions and sashes. Above this, a tablet in the gable bears the date 1614 in raised numerals, with drip mould and sill. The south-west porch has higher eaves but a lower ridge than the main range. A wide segmental-headed doorway in a dressed stone surround contains an original door with strap hinges and studs. The left side wall of the porch has a square-headed two-light ovolo-mullioned window, partly renewed, with a sash window above. Set back on the right side is an outshut housing a defendant's room, with paired eight-pane hornless sashes and a narrow horned sash with iron bars in the return wall. A lean-to beyond contains a single small window, above which the courtroom has a fixed small-pane window with Gothic glazing bars.

The south transept contains a sash window and a lean-to porch with a studded door for witnesses and reporters. Further right is the grand jury room, which has a gabled and pedimented south porch with double panelled doors and an overlight now painted over. A lean-to on its left side has a small-pane horizontal-sliding sash window. The polygonal east end has round-headed windows. The north-east facet continues to the north transept, which forms a robing room of roughly triangular internal plan with a single window. The north transept itself has a segmental-headed studded door, a window to its left, and a small stair light above. The right side wall has small-pane sash windows in both storeys beneath a gable in the upper storey, replacing a four-pane sash shown in a 1937 photograph. The north side of the courtroom has paired sashes.

From the entrance lobby in the south-west wing, access to the courtroom is through a segmental dressed-stone arch with hood mould. A corridor on the right side of the entrance leads to three small rooms including the defendant's room.

The main courtroom range has a four-bay roof structure. The three bays on the west side have hammer-beam trusses on brackets. The east end, over the judge's bench, has a plaster wagon roof with a round roof light featuring star-pattern glazing. Behind the judge's bench is a partition of fielded panels, ribbed coving with a Jacobean arcaded frieze, and a modern Royal Arms. An early 19th-century iron railing screen separates the public space from court officials. The public space contains a flagstone floor and a private box with wooden steps, panelled sides and a sounding board for the mayor. Beyond the screen is the dock, constructed of panelled wood with iron railings, with slightly raised stalls for police guards. Around three sides are the reporters' bench with a higher witness box, lawyers' bench opposite, and the judge's bench, all panelled though of varying dates. A gallery on the north side, supported on a cast iron column with a panelled front, serves the jurors' bench. Beneath and behind the gallery is a plain stair with winders at the base, a square newel and plain balusters, leading to a doorway that opens into the robing room.

The records room above the entrance is accessed by wooden steps at the west end of the courtroom. It retains panelled cupboards and a 19th-century cast-iron fireplace with slate and wood-panelled surround.

The grand jury room is entered either through the partition in the courtroom or directly from outside via a small lobby. It features a panelled door with panelled reveals, a moulded sill band and window surrounds. Ribbed coving is arched to a flat ceiling with bosses carved with various heads. A fireplace has a stone surround with Gothic panels.