The Maidstone Law Courts 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, as well as a

County Court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

venue, which deals with civil cases, in Barker Road, Maidstone, England.

History

Until the early 1980s, the main venue for criminal court hearings in Maidstone was the County Hall. However, as the number of court cases in the Maidstone area grew, it became necessary to commission a more modern courthouse for criminal matters: 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 north east side of Barker Road, had been occupied by a timber yard with a river wharf. The new building was designed by Austin-Smith:Lord 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

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

at a cost of £10.2 million, and was completed in 1983. It was officially opened by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

on 31 October 1984. The design involved an asymmetric five-storey main frontage of nine bays facing onto Barker Road with a lower entrance block projected forward from the main building. The ground floor was faced with red brick and fenestrated by a continuous row of

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...

s. The upper storeys were supported by concrete columns which divided the bays: on these floors, the second, third, seventh and eighth bays featured blind walls which were

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

ed out of the pavement while the other bays were fenestrated by pairs of narrow casement windows. Internally, the building was laid out with ten courtrooms. Notable cases include the trial and conviction of Jeremy Wing and Brian Hogg, in November 2002, for child sex offences, for which they received whole life orders. They also include the trial and conviction of Robert Howard, in October 2003, for the

murder of Hannah Williams The murder of Hannah Williams was an English case in which a 14-year-old schoolgirl, Hannah Williams (May 1986 – c. 21 April 2001), was murdered after going missing during a shopping trip on 21 April 2001. Robert Howard, a convicted sex offend ...

, the trial and conviction of

Antoni Imiela Antoni Imiela (1954 – 8 March 2018) was a German-born convicted serial rapist who grew up in County Durham, England. He was found guilty of the rape of nine women and girls, and the indecent assault, and attempted rape, of a 10-year-old girl ...

, in March 2004, for seven counts of rape, and the trial and conviction of Peter Connolly, in December 2007, for the

murder of Christopher Alaneme Christopher Alaneme (1 October 1987 – 21 April 2006) was a British murder victim. He was eighteen years old when he was murdered on 21 April 2006 in Sheerness, Kent, England. The convicted killer is Peter Connolly, who was a painter and decorato ...

References

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External links

Court information
Buildings and structures in Maidstone Crown Court buildings Government buildings completed in 1983 Court buildings in England