Liverpool County Sessions House was built between 1882 and
1884 to house the Quarter Sessions for the West Derby Hundred of the county of
Lancaster. The coat of arms of the
County appears in the pediment over the main entrance.
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| County Sessions House |
The Quarter Sessions was a court in which cases involving
non-capital offences were tried by magistrates. Cases of this type were heard
at the policy court in Basnett Street and at the Kirkdale Sessions House
attached to Kirkdale gaol. The Prison Act of 1877 transferred prisons like
Kirkdale from local authority control to the state and a new home had to be found
for the Sessions. Until the new Sessions House opened in Islington. They court
was housed temporarily in St George's hall the magistrates held their first
meeting here on Monday 4th August 1884.
The architects of the new building were Francis and George
Holme, members of an important Liverpool family of builders and railway
contractors. Francis Usher Holme - 1843/4-1913 - trained as an architect in
Edinburgh and London, and worked in the office of Sir Charles Barry, designer
of the Houses of Parliament, before retuning to Liverpool. He was Surveyor to
the County of Lancaster, and in this role he did much work in connection with
the design of roads and bridges. In partnership with his uncle George Holme - 1822/3-1915
- he designed the Conservative Club in Dale Street built 1882-3, it later
became the Municipal Annexe and will shortly become a hotel. George Holme also designed the Homeopathic Hospital in Hope
Street (1887), now the Hahnemann Building of John Moores University.
The County Sessions House is part of the row of public
buildings which line the north side of William Brown Street, In appearance and
function these buildings are similar in design to the nearby St George's Hall
built between 1841-56 and designed by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes and C. R. Cockerell.
The first of the William Brown Street group of buildings to be built was the
Museum and Library (1857-60, by Thomas Allom and John Weightman), followed by
the Walker Art Gallery (1874-7, by Cornelius Sherlock) and the Picton Reading
Room (1875-9, also by Sherlock). The exterior of the Sessions House is decorative
with stonework of varied colours, and very little plain, unadorned wall
surface. The Sessions House reflects a general trend in 19th century
architecture away from restraint and simplicity towards greater elaboration, however,
this elaboration does not extend beyond the main facade. As with all the
William Brown Street buildings, the Sessions House was designed to be seen from
the front. The back and the less visible parts of the sides are treated in a
much more utilitarian way and are built largely of brick.
The internal planning is extraordinarily complex and
irregular. This complexity was dictated by the building's original function.
Magistrates and barristers came in by the front door, solicitors and witnesses
entered through a side door in Mill Lane, prisoners were delivered to the cells
through a gate on the east side, and members of the public who came to watch
the proceedings had their own entrance at the back. Once inside, the
arrangement of stairs and corridors was designed to ensure that these four
categories of user did not have to meet until they confronted each other in one
of the courtrooms. Today's visitor exploring the whole building may find the
interior a confusing maze, but its original users would probably have had no
need to venture beyond their own clearly defined area. The complicated
subdivision into many small offices, not all of them adjacent to external
walls, made it difficult for the architects to admit natural light to every
part of the building. They overcame this problem with considerable ingenuity
through the use of roof lights, glazed doors and wrought iron grilles.
The basement of the building was entirely occupied by cells,
the ground floor - the most altered part of the building - originally had
further cells, accommodation for solicitors and witnesses, and a summary court.
The first floor contained two court rooms and accommodation for magistrates,
barristers and jurors; the top floor had a room for the Grand Jury, a dining
room and a caretaker's flat.
The most richly decorated interiors are the entrance hall
and the magistrates' room. The entrance hall uses costly, carefully-worked
materials - Penmon marble for the steps and columns, mosaic flooring by Mr
Swift of Liverpool and Mr Burke of London. The design is based on a
Romano-British floor discovered at Medbourne, near Market Harborough,
Leicestershire. The floor was laid under the supervision of Henry Dibben, a
railway engineer who produced an accurate drawing of the Romano-British floor,
which perhaps also reflected George Holme’s interest in archaeology. The
magistrates' room has elaborately carved panelling and a sumptuous plaster
ceiling. Elsewhere in the building, ceramic tiles are widely used for their
colour, and for reasons of hygiene and durability. The wall tiles in the large
court and on the staircase were supplied by Burmantofts of Leeds. The stained
glass in the large court, showing the royal coat of arms, is by Shrigley and Hunt.
The building was heated by hot water in addition to open
fires and ventilated by Mr Baker's “Acme” system (Baker was Liverpool-based,
and also supplied the ventilating system for F and G. Holme's Conservative
Club). The vents through which used air was extracted can be seen in the
ceilings of both the large and small courtrooms. The provision of air
conditioning marked a big improvement over the Police Court in Basnett Street,
which had been severely criticised for its overcrowding and poor ventilation.
The Courts Act of 1971 abolished Quarter Sessions. After
ending its role as a courthouse, the County Sessions House accommodated the
Merseyside Museum of Labour History for some years. Since 1984 the building has
been in the care of National Museums Liverpool and currently houses the Fine
Art Curatorial and Learning Departments, Print Room and the Rex Makin Lecture
Theatre, all part of NML's Art Galleries Division.
Interior view of the magistrate's room at the Liverpool
Sessions House. The Sessions House was built in 1882-1884 by the architects F
and G Holme, for whom the image was taken.
Photographer: H Bedford Lemere
Date Taken:16
Jun 1888
Collection: Bedford Lemere and Company
Archive Holder: © English
Heritage NMR
Source
National Museums Liverpool
