Swindon Law Courts, also known as Swindon Combined Court Centre, 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 Islington Street,
Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
, England.
History
For much of the 19th century,
petty session
Courts of petty session, established from around the 1730s, were local courts consisting of magistrates, held for each petty sessional division (usually based on the county divisions known as hundreds) in England, Wales, and Ireland. The session ...
hearings in Swindon were held in the ''Goddard Arms'' on the High Street, then, after it opened in the mid-1850s, in the
Old Town Hall
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
, and then, after it opened in 1891, in the
New Town Hall. The lack of dedicated judicial facilities was temporarily resolved when the new Courts of Justice (now referred to as Swindon Magistrates' Court), designed by the borough architect, were opened in Princes Street on 21 April 1965.
However, as the number of court cases in Swindon grew, it became necessary to commission dedicated facilities for both Crown Court hearings, which require courtrooms suitable for trial by jury, and for County Court hearings. The site selected, on the west side of Islington Street, had previously been occupied by a row of terraced houses.
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 £2.4 million, and was opened in 1985. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage at the corner of Islington Street and Gordon Gardens. The corner of the building was recessed to create pedestrian access to the building and space for a flower bed and trees, and involved a section which was
canted
Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to:
Language
* Cant (language), a secret language
* Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers
* Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers
* Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...
across the central part of the recess. There was a blind wall in the central bay to which a
Royal coat of arms was fixed. The bays on either side of the central bay were glazed at ground floor level, with the glazed bay to the right forming the main entrance. The building was fenestrated by two square
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 to the right of the entrance and by four square casement windows on the first floor. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate seven courtrooms.
Notable cases have included the trial and conviction of Damien Bendall, in June 2021, for arson, for which he received a suspended sentence. He went on to murder his partner, Terri Harris, and her three children, using a claw hammer.
References
{{reflist
External links
Court information
Crown Court buildings
Government buildings completed in 1985
Buildings and structures in Swindon
Court buildings in England