Guildford Crown Court is a

Crown Court The Crown Court is the court of first instance of England and Wales responsible for hearing all Indictable offence, indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals lied to it by the Magistrates' court, magistrates' court ...

venue which deals with criminal cases in Bedford Road,

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, England.

History

King Henry III designated Guildford as a location for the Surrey County Court and

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

in August 1257. A

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchange. Such trade was common in towns ...

and assizes hall, which became known as Tunsgate, was erected in the High Street in 1818. However, by 1860, it was found to be "grossly inadequate". The assizes then moved to the County Hall in North Street: that building, which had been commissioned as a mechanics' institute in 1845, was considerably altered and extended for public and judicial use to a design by Thomas Goodchild in 1862. It was badly damaged in a fire in 1963 and was subsequently demolished. As the number of court cases in Guildford grew, it became necessary to commission a modern courthouse. This issue was temporarily resolved when a new law courts building (now referred to as Guildford Magistrates' and County Court) was opened in Mary Road in May 1976. However, what the borough still needed was a courthouse with dedicated facilities for Crown Court hearings, which require courtrooms suitable for trial by jury. The site selected by the

Lord Chancellor's Department The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales. Created in 1885 as the Lord Chancellor's Office with a small staff to assist the Lord Chancell ...

, on the west side of Bedford Road, had been occupied by a cricket ground and a gas works. The new building was designed by the

Property Services Agency The Property Services Agency (PSA) was an agency of the United Kingdom government, in existence from 1972 to 1993. Its role was to “provide, manage, maintain, and furnish the property used by the government, including defence establishments, offi ...

in the

Modernist style Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

, built in red brick at a cost of £4.7 million, and was completed in 1986. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of 23 bays facing onto Bedford Road. The central section of three bays featured a short flight of steps leading up to an opening with two glass doors. Above the opening, there was a

pitched roof Roof pitch is the steepness of a roof expressed as a ratio of inch(es) rise per horizontal foot (or their metric equivalent), or as the angle in degrees its surface deviates from the horizontal. A flat roof has a pitch of zero in either insta ...

surmounted by a triangular pediment bearing a Royal coat of arms. The whole structure, including the wings of ten bays each, was single storey and fronted by a prominent

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

, formed by square columns supporting an entablature. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate six courtrooms. Notable cases have included the trial and conviction of Sally Challen, in June 2011, for the murder of her husband, Richard Challen; her plea to have the conviction reduced to manslaughter was accepted by a judge at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

in June 2019.

References

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External links

Court information
Crown Court buildings Government buildings completed in 1986 Buildings and structures in Guildford Court buildings in England