The County Sessions House is a former
courthouse
A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...
in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
, England. It stands at the top of
William Brown Street
William Brown Street in Liverpool, England, is a road that is remarkable for its concentration of public buildings. It is sometimes referred to as the "Cultural Quarter".
Originally known as ''Shaw's Brow'', a coaching road east from the city, ...
and is adjacent to the
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group.
History
The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...
, the
Steble Fountain
The Steble Fountain stands on William Brown Street in Liverpool, England, to the west of Wellington's Column. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It was donated to the city by a fo ...
and
Wellington's Column
Wellington's Column, or the Waterloo Memorial, is a monument to the Duke of Wellington standing on the corner of William Brown Street and Lime Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for Englan ...
. It now provides office and storage space for the gallery. The Session House is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...
as a designated
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.
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
The Prison Act 1877 ( 40 & 41 Vict. c. 21) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that aimed to alter the way in which British prisons were operated.
Detail
By the 19th century, concerns had been raised about the uncoordinated a ...
, which transferred responsibility for Kirkdale Prison to the state, it became necessary to establish a new
sessions house
A sessions house in the United Kingdom was historically a courthouse that served as a dedicated court of quarter sessions, where criminal trials were held four times a year on quarter days. Sessions houses were also used for other purposes to do w ...
: the site selected was a row of residential properties to the east of the
Walker Art Gallery
The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group.
History
The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...
.
The new building was designed by the Liverpool architects
F & G Holme
F & G Holme were two Liverpool architects, Francis Usher Holme (c.1844-1913), and his uncle, George Holme (1822 or 3-1915), who lived during the 19th century. Their designs include, amongst others, the County Sessions House the Municipal Annexe a ...
in the
Neoclassical style
Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...
and intended to accommodate the
quarter sessions
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...
of the
West Derby Hundred
The West Derby Hundred (also known as West Derbyshire) is one of the six subdivisions of the historic county of Lancashire, in northern England. Its name alludes to its judicial centre being the township of West Derby (the suffix ''-shire'' me ...
of the
historic county of
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
: it was built between 1882 and 1884.
[
The building closed as a judicial facility] in 1984 when the Crown Courts moved to Derby Square
Derby Square is in the city centre of Liverpool, England.
The square stands on what was the original site for Liverpool Castle. Records differ on when it was built, but it is believed to have been constructed any time from 1208 to 1235. Follow ...
. It was then reopened as the Merseyside Museum of Labour History, an initiative sponsored by 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 Gov ...
, in March 1986. After the Merseyside Museum of Labour History closed in November 1991, the building was used by the Walker Art Gallery for offices for staff and for storage.
Architecture
The building is constructed in ashlar
Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones.
Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...
stone on a granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
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 literatur ...
" and "derived from Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
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, ci ...
. 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 cu ...
with eight 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, above which is a frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
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. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashire is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Blackburn with Dar ...
. The windows have round arches and are flanked by Ionic 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. At the sides, five bays have similar columns, beyond which the building is plainer, in yellow brick and stone.[ 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 a ...
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 s ...
and judge's chambers
A judge's chambers is the office of a judge, where the judge may hear certain types of cases, instead of in open court.
Description
A judge's chambers is the office of a judge, where certain types of matters can be heard "in chambers", also ...
, cells
Cell most often refers to:
* Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life
* Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network
* Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization
* Electrochemical cell, a d ...
, and facilities for administration on the ground floor.[
]
See also
*Architecture of Liverpool
The architecture of Liverpool is rooted in the city's development into a major port of the British Empire.Hughes (1999), p10 It encompasses a variety of architectural styles of the past 300 years, while next to nothing remains of its medieval ...
*Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool – City Centre
There are over 2,500 listed buildings in Liverpool, England. A listed building is one considered to be of special architectural, historical or cultural significance, which is protected from being demolished, extended or altered, unless special ...
*
References
{{Liverpool B&S
Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool
Court buildings in Liverpool
Neoclassical architecture in Liverpool