The County Sessions House is a former
courthouse
A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...
in
Liverpool,
Merseyside, England. It stands at the bottom of Islington, to the east of the
Walker Art Gallery, which now occupies the building. It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II*
listed building.
History
The courthouse was commissioned to replace local judicial facilities at a courthouse in Basnett Street and at the Kirkdale Sessions House.
Following the implementation of the
Prison Act 1877 which transferred responsibility for Kirkdale Prison to the state it became necessary the establish a new
sessions house: the site selected was a row of residential properties to the east of the
Walker Art Gallery.
The new building was designed by the Liverpool architects
F & G Holme in the
Neoclassical style and intended to accommodate the
quarter sessions of the
West Derby Hundred of the
historic county of
Lancashire: it was built between 1882 and 1884.
[
The building closed as a judicial facility]Merseyside County Council
Merseyside County Council (MCC) was, from 1974 to 1986, the upper-tier administrative body for Merseyside, a metropolitan county in North West England.
MCC existed for a total of twelve years. It was established on 1 April 1974 by the Local ...
, in March 1986. After the Merseyside Museum of Labour History closed in November 1991,
Architecture
The building is constructed 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 on a granite base.[ Although its appearance is Neoclassical, its style is described as being "late ]Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
" and "derived from Renaissance Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
rather than ancient Greece and Rome".[ It is built in a single storey with a basement, and its front has five ]bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
. The basement is rusticated. At its front is a 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 eight paired Corinthian order
The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...
columns, above which is a frieze bearing the inscription "COUNTY SESSIONS HOUSE".[ The tympanum contains the ]arms
Arms or ARMS may refer to:
*Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body
Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to:
People
* Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader
Coat of arms or weapons
*Armaments or weapons
**Fi ...
of Lancashire County Council
Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. It consists of 84 councillors. Since the 2017 election, the council has been under Conservative control.
Prior to the 2009 La ...
.[ The interior is complex and richly decorated.][ It contains an Italian Renaissance staircase.][ Internally, the principal rooms are the two court rooms on the first floor (one door for the ]nisi prius
''Nisi prius'' () (Latin: "unless before") is a historical term in English law. In the 19th century, it came to be used to denote generally all legal actions tried before judges of the King's Bench Division and in the early twentieth century for ac ...
court and one for the crown court) and the Grand Jury Room on the second floor.[ It also contains ]barristers' chambers
In law, a barrister's chambers or barristers' chambers are the rooms used by a barrister or a group of barristers. The singular refers to the use by a sole practitioner whereas the plural refers to a group of barristers who, while acting as sol ...
and judge's chambers, cells
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
Cell may also refer to:
Locations
* Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...
, and facilities for administration on the ground floor.[
]
See also
*
References
{{Liverpool B&S
Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool
Court buildings in Liverpool
Neoclassical architecture in Liverpool