The Sessions House is a former judicial building on George Row in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

, England. The Sessions House, which was the main courthouse for Northamptonshire, is currently used as a tourist information centre and is a Grade I

listed building 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, Hi ...

. The building is adjacent to County Hall, the meeting place of

Northamptonshire County Council Northamptonshire County Council was the county council for Northamptonshire in England from 1889 to 2021. It was originally created in 1889, reformed in 1974, and abolished in 2021. The headquarters of the council was County Hall, Northampton, ...

History

The Sessions House was built on the site of an early 17th century

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

known as "''The Bell''". The property was acquired for the county and converted into a gaol in 1634.Giggins 2012, p. 10 A

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

, John Maidwell, was imprisoned in the cells of the gaol in 1664 for not swearing allegiance to King Charles II.Giggins 2012, p. 11 The gaol was destroyed in the

Great Fire of Northampton The Great Fire of Northampton occurred on the 20th of September 1675 in Northampton in Northamptonshire, England. The blaze was caused by sparks from an open fire on St. Mary's Street, near Northampton Castle. The fire devastated the town centre ...

in September 1675 and the Sessions House, which was designed by Henry Bell of King's Lynn in the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

using a plan by Sir Roger Norwich, became one of the first facilities built after the Great Fire when it was completed in 1678. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing George Row. The central section of three bays contained windows flanked by

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s with a central shield above the middle window. The end bays contained round headed doorways (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 a ...

'' judge and one door for the crown judge) flanked by paired

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

columns under segmental

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s containing the

Royal arms The royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, also referred to as the royal arms, are the arms of dominion of the British monarch, currently Charles III. They are used by the Government of the United Kingdom and by other The Crown, Crown instit ...

. The building originally also had

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

windows and a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

.Giggins 2012, p. 5 The principal rooms were the courtrooms: the ''nisi prius'' court was in the west of the building, stretching to the rear, and the crown court was in the east of the building. They were decorated with plaster ceilings depicting

justice In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Inst ...

and the

devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

as well as

cornucopia In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (; ), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts. In Greek, it was called the " horn of ...

s which were all designed by Edward Goudge. A fellow architect, Captain

William Winde Captain William Winde (c.1645–1722) was an England, English gentleman architect, whose military career under Charles II of England, Charles II, resulting in fortifications and topographical surveys but lack of preferment, and his later career, ...

, said of Goudge in 1690 that he "will undoubtedly have a good deal of work for he is now looked on as the best master in England in his profession". Portraits of

King William III William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 167 ...

and

Queen Mary II Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband, King William III and II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. She was also Princess of Orange following her marriage on 4 November 1677 ...

by Wolfang William Claret were hung on the walls of the ''nisi prius'' court. The original cells from the old 17th century gaol were incorporated into the basement of the building and were accessed by staircases in the courtrooms.Giggins 2012, p. 7 Prisoners sentenced to death were executed in Angel Lane, at the back of the Sessions House. The building continued to be used as a facility for dispensing justice until 1987, when the

Crown Court The Crown Court is the criminal trial court, court of first instance in England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals of the decisions of magistrates' courts. It is ...

in Lady's Lane was completed. The Sessions House was converted for use as a tourist information centre in 2010.

References

Sources

*{{cite book, last=Giggins, first=Brian, title=Observations on the Sessions House, George Row, Northampton, year=2012, url=https://www.academia.edu/20401838 Court buildings in England Grade I listed buildings in Northamptonshire Grade I listed government buildings Buildings and structures in Northampton