Minshull Street Crown Court is a complex of court buildings on Minshull Street in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. The court was designated a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building on 3 October 1974. It is one of two Crown Courts in Manchester, the other being Manchester Crown Court.

History

The foundation stone for the building was laid by the mayor on 10 July 1868. The building was designed by the architect

Thomas Worthington Thomas or Tom Worthington may refer to: *Thomas Worthington (Douai) (1549–1627), English Catholic priest and third President of Douai College *Thomas Worthington (Dominican) (1671–1754), English Dominican friar and writer *Thomas Worthington (g ...

and was completed in December 1871. The building is in Worthington's trademark

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

, with a massive corner tower and a chimney stack styled as a

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

. The courts are constructed in red brick with sandstone dressings and steeply-pitched slate roofs. There is a profusion of animal carving by Earp and Hobbs. Worthington drew both on his rejected designs for

Manchester Town Hall Manchester Town Hall is a Victorian era, Victorian, Gothic Revival architecture, Neo-gothic City and town halls, municipal building in Manchester, England. It is the ceremonial headquarters of Manchester City Council and houses a number of local ...

, and on his earlier plans for Ellen Wilkinson High School, although the central tower he used there is placed asymmetrically at the Police Courts, due to the constraints of the site. The interior court rooms "have been preserved with relatively few alterations." Following the completion of new Courts of Justice in Crown Square in May 1961, 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 Chance ...

decided to close the Minshull Street building in 1989, but as the volume of cases increased in the early 1990s, the department decided to re-open the Minshull Street building again to support the Courts of Justice in Crown Square. Between 1993 and 1996, the Minshull Street buildings were extensively modernised. The original courtyard was glazed over and an extension was added to the Aytoun Street side of the courts. The architect for these works was James Stevenson of the Hurd Rolland Partnership. Internally, the modernised complex at Minshull Street was laid out to accommodate 12 courts. Notable cases include the conviction of the gambler, Ming Jiang, in February 2023, for the murder of his gambling companion, Yang Liu, whose headless body was found on a country lane.

References

Sources

* * {{commons category Grade II* listed buildings in Manchester Gothic Revival architecture in Greater Manchester History of Manchester Court buildings in England Crown Court buildings Government buildings completed in 1871

History

See also

References

Sources