Teesside Combined Court Centre
| Teesside Combined Court Centre | |
|---|---|
 Teesside Combined Court Centre | |
| Location | Corporation Road,Middlesbrough |
| Coordinates | 54°34′31″N1°13′52″W/ 54.5754°N 1.2312°W |
| Built | 1991 |
| Architect | Napper Collerton |
| Architectural style(s) | Post-modernist style |
  Shown in North Yorkshire | |
TheTeesside Combined Court Centreis aCrown Courtvenue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as aCounty Courtvenue, which deals with civil cases, in Corporation Road,Middlesbrough,England.
History
[edit]Until the early 1970s, apart from an aging courtroom inMiddlesbrough Town Hall,[1]there were no dedicated court facilities suitable for criminal trials in the area.[2]This was temporarily resolved when a new law courts building (now referred to as Middlesbrough Magistrates' Court) was opened in Victoria Square in 1973.[3][4]However, as the number of court cases on Teesside grew, it became necessary to commission a courthouse with dedicated facilities for both Crown Court hearings,[5]which require courtrooms suitable for trial by jury, and for County Court hearings.[6]The site selected by theLord Chancellor's Departmenthad been occupied by rows of terraced houses (Elm Street, Atkinson Street and Ash Street),[7]which were cleared away in the late 1970s for a development which Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher's government cancelled in 1979.[8]
The new building was designed by Napper Collerton in thePost-modernist style,built byJohn Laing Constructionin red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £15.1 million,[9]and was completed in 1991.[10][11]The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto Central Square Gardens. The central bay featured a two-storeyporticoformed by columns supporting apyramid-shaped glass roof. Inside the portico there was a glass doorway on the ground floor and aRoyal coat of armsat first floor level. The first and second floors werecantileveredout over the pavement and fenestrated by tall bi-partite windows split by full-height columns supporting anentablatureand, in the two bays flanking the central bay, segmentalpediments.Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate twelve courtrooms.[12]
A statue sculpted byGraham Ibbeson,entitled "Scales of Justice", which depicted two small squabbling children being held by a women, was unveiled outside the building in 1994.[13][14]
Notable cases have included the trial and conviction of Robin Garbutt, in April 2011, for the murder of his wife, theMelsonbypostmistress, Diane Garbutt.[15]
References
[edit]- ^"Major town hall project to be taken forward".National Heritage Fund. 27 March 2015.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Written Evidence Submitted to the Commission Under the Chairmanship of Lord Beeching".UK Parliament. 1971. p. 204.
I do not think that the work on Teesside is sufficient to justify a crown court with high court jurisdiction. Furthermore there are no Court buildings suitable for the purpose. Accordingly it will be necessary for Teesside cases to be tried at Assizes.
- ^"A frosty reception reserved for crooks".Middlesbrough Evening Gazette.11 August 2015.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Proposal on the future of Northallerton Magistrates' Court"(PDF).Ministry of Justice. 18 January 2018. p. 10.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Teesside Crown Courts".House of Commons. 18 April 1988.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Assizes and Quarter Sessions".House of Commons. 7 May 1970.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Ordnance Survey Map".1914.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"The story of how Thatcher's Government scuppered plans for 3,000 jobs in Centre Square".Gazette Live.6 August 2017.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Capital Building Programme".Hansard. 26 January 1996.Retrieved12 March2023.
- ^"Teesside Law Courts".Napper Architects.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^Mulcahy, Linda; Rowden, Emma (2019).The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity.Taylor and Francis.ISBN978-0429558689.
- ^"Teesside".Ministry of Justice.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^Ibbeson, Graham."Scales of Justice".Art UK.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Law Courts and Courtrooms 1: The Buildings of the Criminal Law".Historic England. p. 1.Retrieved28 January2023.
- ^"Husband guilty of Melsonby postmistress murder".BBC News.19 April 2011.Retrieved28 January2023.