Cardiff Crown Court ( cy, Llys y Goron Caerdydd) is a historic building situated in
Cathays Park
Cathays Park ( cy, Parc Cathays) or Cardiff Civic Centre is a civic centre area in the city centre of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, consisting of a number of early 20th century buildings and a central park area, Alexandra Gardens. It i ...
,
Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
. The building is a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. As a
Crown Court venue it is part of the Wales Circuit of
Her Majesty's Courts Service. The court house has nine
courtrooms in addition to one "virtual" courtroom.
The senior judge at the court is
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, the
Recorder of Cardiff.
History
Cathays Park was purchased in 1898 by the
Borough of Cardiff from the
3rd Marquess of Bute for £160,000 and developed into the
Cardiff Civic Centre by William Harpur, a council engineer. A competition for the law courts and the nearby
town hall took place in 1897, and it was won by
Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards. Building work commenced in 1901 and the external structure was complete by 1904.
The building was opened by the 3rd Marquess of Bute in October 1906.
Courts 1 and 2, formerly Crown Court (north) and Nisi Prius Court (south) were added to between 1966 and 1990 and the building was fully refurbished between 1991 and 1995.
Architecture
Located on King Edward VII Avenue, the east entrance front of the Law Courts faces the side of Cardiff City Hall. Writing in 1995, Newman observes that the projecting nine bay centre of the courts is of a more solemn composition than the city hall, reflecting its serious role compared to the more celebratory function of its neighbour.
The front of the court boasts a full-scale external order, with unfluted
Doric column
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...
s carrying a simplified
entablature.
The columns are arranged in pairs forming a recessed
loggia
In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior gallery or corridor, usually on an upper level, but sometimes on the ground level of a building. The outer wall is open to the elements, usually supported by a series of columns ...
, while the end bays host channelled
quoins. Rising above are two large stone turrets with domical tops and paired diagonally projecting
colonnettes, reminiscent of
Wren.
The central main doorway is set forward in line with the columns, with a richly carved coat of arms above. The front bays are observed to have the character of a temple or church due to the flight of heavy steps that rise up to meet them.
The steps are flanked by two large bronze lampstands adorned with dragons.
The south-facing side of the court was designed as a sister piece to the town hall, with
Baroque features that helped established their reputation as setting a new standard in the emergence of the Edwardian grand style for public buildings in Britain.
The external details lend heavily from the Baroque of south Germany and Austria combined with the neo-Baroque of
Charles Garnier's Paris
opera house
An opera house is a theatre building used for performances of opera. It usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, and backstage facilities for costumes and building sets.
While some venues are constructed specifically fo ...
.
The similarities between the courts and the city hall can be seen through the south fronts, with bulging banded plinth and broad areas of channelling at angles and breaks, long round-headed lower windows set in concave surrounds and at the outer end of each facade, three-bay
canted projections.
Although difficult to appreciate from the ground, and more obvious from the building plans, is the off-centre tower of the city hall which was placed to link the two buildings, as it stands over the west side entrance of the hall and is aligned on the axis of the
portico of the law courts.
Despite the heavy relationship in style, what makes the facades appear quite different is the prodigious centrepiece of City Hall which contrasts sharply from the emphasised centre of the law courts.
Adorning the top of the Crown Courts are several attic sculptures, representing Welsh Science and Education by Donald McGill and Welsh Commerce and Industry by
Paul Raphael Montford
__NOTOC__
Paul Raphael Montford (1 November 1868 – 15 January 1938) was an English-born sculptor, also active in Australia; winner of the gold medal of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1934.Jenny Zimmer,Montford, Paul Raphael (1868–1 ...
.
Both were added in 1906, and like much of the Baroque were later additions to the submitted winning design.
Central to the south side, on the lawn in front, is erected a statue to Judge Gwilym Williams by Welsh artist
Goscombe John
Sir William Goscombe John (21 February 1860 – 15 December 1952) was a prolific Welsh sculptor known for his many public memorials. As a sculptor, John developed a distinctive style of his own while respecting classical traditions and forms of ...
.
To the interior, Newman finds only one space of any architectural note, that of the main hall from the front entrance. Here, flights of steps rise and divide the space into a three bay room set transversely. The hall is crowned by three saucer domes on
pendentive
In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to point ...
s, between which
lunette windows light from both the front and back.
See also
*
Grade I listed buildings in Cardiff
There are around 1,000 listed buildings in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. A listed building is one considered to be of special architectural, historical or cultural significance, which is protected from being demolished, extended or alter ...
*
Courts of England and Wales
The courts of England and Wales, supported administratively by His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in England and Wales.
The United Kingdom does not have ...
*
List of Crown Court venues in England and Wales
References
External links
Court information
* {{commons category-inline, Cardiff Crown Court
Grade I listed buildings in Cardiff
Court buildings in Wales
Crown Court buildings
Cathays Park
Government buildings completed in 1906