The National Justice Museum (formerly known as the Galleries of Justice Museum and, historically, the Shire Hall and County Gaol) is an independent museum on
High Pavement in the
Lace Market
The Lace Market is a historic quarter-mile square area of Nottingham, England. It was the centre of the world's lace industry during the British Empire and is now a protected heritage area. It was an area of salesrooms and warehouses for storin ...
area of
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
The museum is housed in a former
Victorian courtroom,
prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
, and
police station
A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, ...
and is therefore a historic site where an individual could be arrested, tried, sentenced and executed. The courtrooms date back to the 14th century and the gaol to at least 1449.
The building is a
Grade II*
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 ...
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 ...
and the museum is a registered charity.
History
Early history
The earliest confirmed use of the site for official purposes was by the Normans, who appointed sheriffs to keep the peace and collect taxes; hence the site was sometimes referred to as the Sheriff's Hall, the County Hall or the King's Hall. The first written record of the site being used as a law court dates from 1375. The first written reference to its use as a prison is in 1449.
Eighteenth century
Over the centuries, the courts and prison were developed and enlarged. In 1724, the courtroom floor collapsed. The ''Nottingham Courant'' in March 1724 recorded:
The hall was rebuilt between 1769 and 1772. The architect was
James Gandon
James Gandon (20 February 1743 – 24 December 1823) was an English architect best known for his work in Ireland during the late 18th century and early 19th century. His better known works include The Custom House and the surrounding Beresford ...
of London and the cost around £2,500 (). The builder was
Joseph Pickford
Joseph Pickford (bap. 1734–1782) was an English architect, one of the leading provincial architects in the reign of George III.
Biography
Pickford was born in Warwickshire in 1734 but he moved as child to London when his father died. Pickfor ...
of Derby. The design for the building involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing onto High Pavement: the right hand section of three bays featured a round headed doorway flanked by two round headed windows and full-height
Ionic order columns; there was a rectangular blank panel above the doorway flanked by roundels. The inscription on the top of the building reads:
The building was originally fronted by a high palisade.
Nineteenth century
Additional wings were added to the building between 1820 and 1840. Changes were made to the ''
nisi prius'' court in 1833. The judges' retiring room, barristers' robing room and office for a clerk were added in 1844.
[''Ordering law: the architectural and social history of the English law court''. Clare Graham] A new grand jury room was added in 1859 to designs by the architect
Richard Charles Sutton
Richard Charles Sutton was an architect based in Nottingham. He was born 1834 and died on 18 October 1915.
He was a member of Nottingham City Council from 1887 to 1901.
Career
He was articled to Samuel Sanders Teulon and commenced independent p ...
.
Until 1832 most Nottingham hangings took place at Gallows Hill, but in 1832 they transferred to the Shire Hall. The last public execution was held in 1864, when
Richard Thomas Parker
Richard Thomas Parker (1834 - 10 August 1864) was an English murderer who was the last person to be publicly executed in Nottingham.
Life
He was christened in Thurgarton on 26 October 1834.
Richard Thomas Parker of Fiskerton, a butcher, was pub ...
was hanged.
Executions were held on a scaffold erected over the stone steps in front of the central doorway, within the small enclosure created by closing the gates of the iron railings. The drop was described as approximately level with the lintel of the door. Three small square stone insets in the steps are, in local legend, the sockets where the "Three-legged Mare" scaffold feet were set, but this design of scaffold was never used at Nottingham and the steps themselves post-date the 1876 fire (see below) and public hangings. After the abolition of public executions in 1868, most hangings took place at the Borough Gaol but on 21 November 1877 Thomas Gray was hanged in a yard at the rear of the Shire Hall.
In 1876, major improvements were made and the front was redesigned in an
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...
style by
William Bliss Sanders of Nottingham. Within a few weeks, a fire broke out and nearly destroyed all of the newly completed work. Following the fire, the courts were largely rebuilt by
Thomas Chambers Hine
Thomas Chambers Hine (31 May 1813 – 6 February 1899) was an architect based in Nottingham.
Background
He was born in Covent Garden into a prosperous middle-class family, the eldest son of Jonathan Hine (1780–1862), a hosiery manufacturer an ...
between 1876 and 1879; but the gaol was closed in 1878.
Following the implementation of the
Local Government Act 1888
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
* Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...
, which established county councils in every county, the building also became the meeting place of
Nottinghamshire County Council
Nottinghamshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Nottinghamshire in England. It consists of 66 county councillors, elected from 56 electoral divisions every four years. The most recent election ...
.
Twentieth century to date
A police station was built adjacent the building in 1905. After the County Council moved to
County Hall (a larger and more modern complex located on the south bank of the
River Trent
The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...
) in 1954, the Shire Hall continued in use as the home of Nottingham's civil and criminal courts until 1991, when
Nottingham Crown Court
Nottingham Crown Court, or more formally the High Court of Justice and Crown Court, Nottingham is a Crown Court and meeting place of the High Court of Justice on Canal Street in Nottingham, England. The building also accommodates the County Cou ...
was opened on Canal Street.
The Galleries of Justice Museum opened in the building in 1995. It was refurbished and rebranded as the National Justice Museum in 2017.
The building houses two courtrooms, an underground jail and a site used for executions.
Exhibitions
The Crime Gallery includes a range of family activities, interactive exhibits and exhibitions exploring a range of topics relating to crime and punishment. The area also includes the dock from
Bow Street Magistrates' Court
Bow Street Magistrates' Court became one of the most famous magistrates' court in England. Over its 266-year existence it occupied various buildings on Bow Street in Central London, immediately north-east of Covent Garden. It closed in 2006 a ...
.
[
]
References
External links
*
{{Nottingham Places of Interest , state=autocollapse
Museums in Nottingham
Prisons in Nottinghamshire
14th-century establishments in England
Former courthouses in England
Prison museums in the United Kingdom
category:Law enforcement museums in England
Law museums in the United Kingdom
Museums established in 1995
Defunct prisons in England