City Police Courts, Manchester

Police Courts

The City Police Courts, now commonly called Minshull Street Crown Court, is a complex of court buildings on Minshull Street in Manchester, designed in 1867–73 by the architect Thomas Worthington.[1] The court was made a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974.[2]

The style is Worthington's trademark flamboyant Flemish Gothic with a massive corner tower and a chinney stack styled as a campanille. 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.[3] Worthington drew both on his rejected designs for the Town Hall, 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.[1] The interior court rooms "have been preserved with relatively few alterations."[1]

Police Courts showing the 1990s extension

In 1993-96, the buildings were extensively modernised. The original courtyard was glaze 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.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Clare Hartwell Pevsner Architectural Guides: Manchester 2001; pp. 172-73
  2. ↑ http://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-388318-city-police-courts-manchester
  3. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner; Clare Hartwell & Matthew Hyde, The Buildings of England, Lancashire: Manchester and the South East

Further reading

Coordinates: 53°28′43″N 2°14′05″W / 53.4786°N 2.2348°W / 53.4786; -2.2348

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