The Sessions House is a municipal building in Ewell Road,
Surbiton
Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...
, London. It is a Grade II
listed building.
History
In the late 19th century the local board met in various places including private residences and public houses but, after the area became an urban district in 1894, civic leaders decided that this arrangement was inadequate and chose to procure purpose-built civic offices;
the site selected had been occupied by a private residence known as "Hill House".
The building, which was designed in the
Edwardian Baroque style, was completed in 1898.
[ The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Ewell Road; the central section featured an arched doorway with a ]fanlight
A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...
on the ground floor; there was a wrought iron balcony and a round-headed window with the borough coat of arms and a pediment above on the first floor; there was a cupola containing a clock at roof level.[
The building became the headquarters of Municipal Borough of Surbiton when it secured municipal borough status in 1936 but ceased to be the local seat of government after the creation of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in 1965. Instead, the building was converted for judicial use as a venue for holding the quarter sessions: it then became known as the "Sessions House".][
Crown Court sittings at the Sessions House ceased in 1997 when a new Crown Court opened at The Bittoms in Kingston upon Thames. However the courthouse continued to operate as an immigration appeal court. After the building fell vacant in 2009, it was converted for use as a learning disability centre managed by a social enterprise concern known as "Your Health Care" which started to provide some services at the centre on behalf of Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.][
]
Notes
References
Sources
*{{cite web, url=https://archive.org/stream/surbitonthirtytw00richrich/surbitonthirtytw00richrich_djvu.txt, title=Surbiton; thirty-two years of local self-government, 1855-1887, page=8, publisher=Bull and Son, year=1888, first=Rowley, last=Richardson
Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
City and town halls in London
Government buildings completed in 1898
Grade II listed government buildings