The Justiciary Buildings is a judicial complex in the

Saltmarket The Saltmarket is a thoroughfare in the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is a southward continuation of the High Street, running south from Glasgow Cross to the junction with Clyde Street and Crown Street by the River Clyde. It runs past the High Co ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland. The complex, which operates in conjunction with similar facilities in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, is dedicated for the use of the

High Court of Justiciary The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Cou ...

, which is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. It is a Category A

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 building was commissioned to replace the

Glasgow Tolbooth The Glasgow Tolbooth was a municipal structure at Glasgow Cross, Glasgow, Scotland. The main block, which was the meeting place of the Royal Burgh of Glasgow, was demolished in 1921 leaving only the steeple standing. The steeple is a Category A ...

Glasgow Cross Glasgow Cross is at the hub of the ancient royal burgh and now city of Glasgow, Scotland, close to its first crossing over the River Clyde. As a major junction in the city centre, its five streets run: north up the High Street to Glasgow Cathed ...

as the main municipal and judicial building in Glasgow. It was designed by William Stark in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...

, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone and was completed in 1814. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seventeen bays facing onto the Saltmarket. The central section of five bays was formed by a full-height

hexastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

with

Doric order 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 col ...

columns supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, a

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

with

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

s and a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

. The wing sections, of five bays each, featured pedimented doorways in the central bay and were fenestrated by

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s. The end bays, which slightly projected forward, were fenestrated by

cross window A cross-window is a window whose lights are defined by a mullion and a transom, forming a cross.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture'', 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 214. . The Late ...

s on the ground floor and by tripartite windows on the first floor; they were flanked by full height pairs of

pilaster In classical architecture 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 ...

s supporting an entablature, a frieze with triglyphs and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

. The central pediment above the portico originally contained the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

of the

City of Glasgow Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of th ...

in the tympanum. Internally, the principal rooms were the Justiciary Hall, which was located in the centre of the range behind the portico, the burgh courtroom, which was located to the north of the Justiciary Hall, and the city council chamber, which was located to the south of the Justiciary Hall. The lord provost's room and the offices of the town clerks were on the first floor. A tunnel took condemned prisoners from the Justiciary Hall to the place of execution in Jocelyn Square, then known as Jail Square: 67 men and four women were publicly hanged in the square. The building became wholly dedicated to judicial use after the city council relocated to the city and county buildings in Wilson Street in 1844. In the early 20th century, it was decided to remodel the complex, in conjunction with similar facilities in

and

, for the exclusive use of the

, which is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The work was undertaken to a design by

James Hoey Craigie James Hoey Craigie TD FRIBA (7 May 1870 – 30 March 1930) was a Scottish architect. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1894 he won the Alexander Thomson travelling scholarship which he spent in France and Italy. In 1905 he was made a ...

Clarke & Bell Clarke & Bell & R. A. Bryden was a major Scottish architectural firm based in Glasgow, created by William Clarke (1809–1889), George Bell (1814–1887) and Robert Alexander Bryden (1841–1906) around 1875. The practice dissolved in 1902,

between 1910 and 1913. The building was significantly extended to the rear to a design by TBV Consult, the architectural arm of Tarmac Construction, in 1997. The complex was further extended in 2007, and again in 2016, in order to increase the capacity of the complex to nine courtrooms.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1814 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Glasgow Court buildings in Scotland 1814 establishments in Scotland High Court of Justiciary

History

See also

References