Law Courts

Law Courts

A two-storey quadrangular building in Baroque style, faced with Portland stone and finished with small-pane metal casement glazing. The main entrance faces north-east.

The centre section spans nine bays and features a splayed rusticated doorway with entrances to the front and sides, set within a portico of Roman Doric columns in antis. A heraldic shield sits above the door. The portico is surmounted by a pair of towers with Wrenaissance cupolas topped by orb and crown finials, with paired colonettes to the corners. The portico sits at the head of a wide flight of steps, flanked by lampstands topped with dragons. At either end, in the same plane, stands a single bay with giant rusticated pilasters.

To the north and south of this centrepiece, recessed lateral wings each contain five bays with rectangular windows on both floors; the upper windows have moulded architraves. At each end, projecting pavilions of one bay width rise as windowless structures with giant rusticated pilasters and a square attic storey above.

The south-east elevation displays eleven bays. The first-floor windows have moulded architraves and aprons with panelling between them. The ground floor has round-headed windows at each end and a two-storey splayed bay flanked by giant rusticated pilasters; the centre light of the ground floor is rusticated, and the centre light of the first floor is flanked by trophies. Each bay is surmounted by an attic storey ornamented with groups of sculpture: the western group illustrates "Science and Education" and the eastern group illustrates "Commerce and Industry".

The south-west elevation steps down to one storey, with an advanced centre containing a doorway flanked by three windows on each side. Blocks of eight bays connect to end towers. The north-west elevation shows two windows at the return from the front, then an archway to the central courtyard, followed by a six-window, three-storey block set forward.

The magnificent interiors are designed in severe Roman style. Most principal interiors remain unaltered, retaining original doors, doorcases, marble fireplaces, oak panelling, moulded ceilings, and early electrical light fittings. All public areas at the front of the building are faced in Portland stone.

At the main entrance lobby, steps divide and rise to a transverse three-bay hall. Behind the entrance wall is a relief cartouche borne by putti, with a druid keystone to the doorway. The hall has three bays with shallow oval domes on pendentives and lunette windows to the front and rear; a corridor at lunette level runs along the front. The wall-piers have foliage capitals and a foliage cornice, with original brass electroliers sprouting from the foliage; electroliers also feature in the lobbies and corridors ceilings.

At each end of the hall, a screen of two Ionic columns precedes the entrances to Courts 1 and 2 (formerly the Crown Court to the north and Nisi Prius Court to the south), which are mirror images of each other. Both feature oak-panelled lobbies and square courtrooms with high lunette windows, flat enriched ceilings, oak panelling, benches and other original fittings. Each has a gallery with a curved frontal above recessed tiered seating. Corridors run to each end of the hall.

Two former magistrates' courts (Courts 7 and 8) are top-lit with moulded panelled walls, wooden dados, doorways with segmental pediments, and original seating. Other courts have been refurbished. A robing room at the south-east corner rises two storeys into the attic and features oval oculi, a flat enriched ceiling, painted panelling, and a marble fireplace. The library at the south-west corner has a west section matching the robing room, separated from the east section by Doric columns and pillars, with fitted wooden shelves.

The rear entrance hall features a transverse barrel vault with windows to the ends. At right angles, the rear stair has an iron portcullis to the arch and divides at the landing, which features a wrought-iron balustrade and four sets of paired Doric columns; it rises again with similar treatment at a barrel-vaulted landing. Offices and corridors have simpler classicising treatment to their doors and doorcases. Former cells with glazed brick facings have been converted to interview rooms and other spaces.