The Inner London Sessions House Crown Court, more commonly known as the Inner London Crown Court and distinct from the Inner London Magistrates' 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 ...

building in Newington,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It is located in the Sessions House on

Newington Causeway __NOTOC__ Newington Causeway is a road in Southwark, London, between the Elephant and Castle and Borough High Street. Elephant & Castle Underground station is at the southern end. It follows the route of the old Roman road Stane Street. In 19 ...

at the corner of Harper Road. It is a Grade II

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 ...

History

The first building on the site was designed by George Gwilt the Elder and opened as the Surrey County Sessions House in 1791. It was adjacent to the

Horsemonger Lane Gaol Horsemonger Lane Gaol (also known as the Surrey County Gaol or the New Gaol) was a prison close to present-day Newington Causeway in Southwark, south London. Built at the end of the 18th century, it was in use until 1878. History The gaol was b ...

which was also designed by Gwilt. Important cases in the 19th century included the trial of the Reverend Robert Taylor who was convicted of

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religiou ...

at the Surrey County Sessions in April 1831 and then committed to Horsemonger Lane Gaol. The gaol was demolished in 1881 and replaced by a public park,

Newington Gardens Newington Gardens is located on Harper Road in Southwark, London, England. To the north-west is the Inner London Sessions House, a Crown Court. Its area is . The park occupies part of the site of an old prison that was closed in 1878. The par ...

, which opened in 1884. Following local government re-organisation in 1889,

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

inherited the

Middlesex Sessions House The former Middlesex Sessions House or the Old Sessions House is a large building on Clerkenwell Green in the London Borough of Islington in London, England, built in 1780 as the courthouse for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions. It is a Grade II* ...

, which was no longer in Middlesex, and the Surrey County Sessions House, which was no longer in Surrey. For a while the London county leaders decided to share the judicial work out between the two locations. After deciding this arrangement was inadequate for their needs, the justices decided to close the Middlesex Sessions House and rebuild the Newington Causeway Sessions House so that it could accommodate the extra judicial workload being transferred from Middlesex Sessions House. Meanwhile the Surrey county leaders established new administrative facilities for themselves at County Hall in

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

in November 1893. The new and expanded Sessions House was designed by the London county architect, W. E. Riley, in the

classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

and was completed in 1921. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of 11 bays facing Newington Causeway with the end three bays on each side slightly projected forwards; the central section of five bays featured an arched doorway with a pediment above; there were pedimented round headed windows on the first floor and small square windows on the second floor. The building was designated as a Crown Court venue in 1971 and was extended in 1974 to provide 10 courts for use on the South Eastern Circuit. An annex was also established just to the northeast in Swan Street. Recent cases at the courthouse have included the trial following the

2009 Upton Park riot The 2009 Upton Park riot occurred in and around West Ham United's Boleyn Ground, in Upton Park before, during and after a Football League Cup second round match between West Ham and Millwall on 25 August 2009. The match was won by the home side ...

in August 2009: 80 people suspected of violence before and after the match were arrested and several

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

fans were convicted in the courthouse of violent disorder in April 2010, receiving prison sentences, including one of 20 months.

References

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External links

Court information
1921 establishments in England Crown Court buildings Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark Court buildings in London Government buildings completed in 1921

History

See also

References

External links