Manchester Crown Court (Crown Square) 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 at Crown Square in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England.

History

Until the 1940s, criminal court cases were heard at the

Manchester Assize Courts The Manchester Assize Courts was a building housing law courts on Great Ducie Street in the Strangeways district of Manchester, England. It was tall and from 1864 to 1877 the tallest building in Manchester. Widely admired, it has been referred to ...

. However, the assize courts were badly damaged in the

Manchester Blitz The Manchester Blitz (also known as the Christmas Blitz) was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester and its surrounding areas in North West England during the Second World War by the German ''Luftwaffe''. It was one of three major raids on ...

in 1940. After the war, 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 ...

decided to commission a new building to replace the assize courts. The site the Department selected by the

, in

Spinningfields Spinningfields is an area of Manchester city centre, in North West England, developed in the 2000s between Deansgate and the River Irwell by Allied London Properties. The £1.5 billion project consists of twenty new buildings, totalling approxima ...

, had been occupied by workshops and factories which had also been badly damaged during the war. The new building was designed by the city architect,

Leonard Cecil Howitt Leonard Cecil Howitt (1896 – 1964) – often referred to as L. C. Howitt – served in both World Wars and was Manchester City Council's chief architect from 1946 until he retired in 1961. Life Leonard Howitt was born on 27 December 1896 in Is ...

, 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

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

and was completed in 1962. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nineteen bays facing onto a newly-created open area known as Crown Square. The central section of three bays featured a long flight of steps leading up to a three-door entrance with an ornate

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

supported by poles and surmounted by golden eagles. The bays in the central section and the seven bays which flanked the central section on either side were fenestrated by full-height glazing separated by stone

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

, while the end bays were fenestrated by matrices of small square windows. Some of the sculptures from the assize courts were preserved and incorporated into the building. It was extended to the north to a design 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

brutalist style Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ba ...

in 1986. Internally, the complex was laid out to accommodate 17 courts. The architectural historian,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, commented that the complex was a "come-down after Waterhouse's brilliant early work" at the assize courts. As the volume of cases increased in the early 1990s, the Department decided to re-open the Minshull Street building to support the work of the Crown Square building. A "super-courtroom", intended for gang trials and murder cases, with floor-area three times the size of a standard courtroom, was brought into use in September 2021. Notable cases at Crown Square have included the trial and conviction, in July 2009, of three men for the murder of the local hard man, Donald Donlan, and the trial and conviction, in March 2021, of three men for the murder of the

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

, Cole Kershaw.

References

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Extrernal links

Court information
Crown Court buildings Government buildings completed in 1962 Buildings and structures in Manchester