Teesside Combined Court Centre
Teesside Combined Court Centre
LocationCorporation Road, Middlesbrough
Coordinates54°34′31″N 1°13′52″W / 54.5754°N 1.2312°W / 54.5754; -1.2312
Built1991
ArchitectNapper Collerton
Architectural style(s)Post-modernist style
Teesside Combined Court Centre is located in North Yorkshire
Teesside Combined Court Centre
Shown in North Yorkshire

The Teesside Combined Court Centre is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as a County Court venue, which deals with civil cases, in Corporation Road, Middlesbrough, England.

History

Until the early 1970s, apart from an aging courtroom in Middlesbrough 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 the Lord Chancellor's Department had 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 Minister Margaret Thatcher's government cancelled in 1979.[8]

The new building was designed by Napper Collerton in the Post-modernist style, built by John Laing Construction in 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-storey portico formed by columns supporting a pyramid-shaped glass roof. Inside the portico there was a glass doorway on the ground floor and a Royal coat of arms at first floor level. The first and second floors were cantilevered out over the pavement and fenestrated by tall bi-partite windows split by full-height columns supporting an entablature and, in the two bays flanking the central bay, segmental pediments. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate twelve courtrooms.[12]

A statue sculpted by Graham 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, the Melsonby postmistress, Diane Garbutt.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Major town hall project to be taken forward". National Heritage Fund. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  2. ↑ "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.
  3. ↑ "A frosty reception reserved for crooks". Middlesbrough Evening Gazette. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  4. ↑ "Proposal on the future of Northallerton Magistrates' Court" (PDF). Ministry of Justice. 18 January 2018. p. 10. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  5. ↑ "Teesside Crown Courts". House of Commons. 18 April 1988. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  6. ↑ "Assizes and Quarter Sessions". House of Commons. 7 May 1970. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  7. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1914. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  8. ↑ "The story of how Thatcher's Government scuppered plans for 3,000 jobs in Centre Square". Gazette Live. 6 August 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  9. ↑ "Capital Building Programme". Hansard. 26 January 1996. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  10. ↑ "Teesside Law Courts". Napper Architects. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  11. ↑ Mulcahy, Linda; Rowden, Emma (2019). The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0429558689.
  12. ↑ "Teesside". Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Ibbeson, Graham. "Scales of Justice". Art UK. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  14. ↑ "Law Courts and Courtrooms 1: The Buildings of the Criminal Law". Historic England. p. 1. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  15. ↑ "Husband guilty of Melsonby postmistress murder". BBC News. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
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