Southwark Crown Court
Southwark Crown Court
LocationEnglish Grounds, London
Coordinates51°30′20″N 0°04′56″W / 51.5056°N 0.0823°W / 51.5056; -0.0823
Built1983
ArchitectProperty Services Agency
Architectural style(s)Modern style
Southwark Crown Court is located in Greater London
Southwark Crown Court
Shown in London

The Crown Court at Southwark, usually referred to as Southwark Crown Court, is an English Crown Court which deals with criminal cases at 1 English Grounds (off Battlebridge Lane) on the south bank of the River Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge in London. It operates within the South Eastern Region of His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service.[1]

History

Until the 1980s, the principal criminal court for south London was the Sessions House in Newington Causeway.[2] However, as the number of criminal cases in south London grew, it became necessary to commission additional courthouse capacity for south London. The site selected, on the south bank of the River Thames, had been occupied by a large warehouse known as "Willson's Wharf",[3] which was badly damaged in a fire in August 1971.[4] The warehouse was demolished and the empty site was acquired by the Lord Chancellor's Department at a cost of £2 million.[5]

The new building was designed by the Property Services Agency[6] in the modern style, built in yellow brick at a cost of £12.6 million,[7] and was opened in 1983.[8] The design involved a broadly symmetrical three-storey main frontage facing south onto English Grounds. It featured a long flat portico which was projected forward and supported by brick columns; it was fenestrated by small square casement windows on the ground floor and by rectangular casement windows on the first and second floors, and there was an additional, taller block behind the main frontage. A Royal coat of arms was mounted on the left hand side of the main frontage at first floor level. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate 15 courtrooms, making it the fourth largest court centre in the country and the main serious fraud centre for the area.[9]

Notable cases have included the trial and conviction of the publicist, Max Clifford, in April 2014, for indecent assault,[10] the trial and conviction of the entertainer, Rolf Harris, in June 2014, for indecent assault,[11] the trial and conviction of the disc jockey, Dave Lee Travis, in September 2014, for indecent assault,[12] the trial and conviction of the tennis player, Boris Becker, in April 2022, for breaches of the Insolvency Act,[13] and the trial and conviction of former chief executive of the Formula One Group, Bernie Ecclestone, for fraud in October 2023.[14][15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "HMCS Framework Document" (PDF). HMCS. April 2008. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2008. Retrieved 16 October 2008.
  2. ↑ Historic England. "Inner London Sessions Court (1385732)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  3. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1971. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  4. ↑ "LFB150 – 45th anniversary of Wilson's Wharf fire of 1971". London Fire Brigade. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  5. ↑ Rock, Paul (2019). The Official History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales. Vol. 2. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0429892189.
  6. ↑ Construction. Department of the Environment. 1979. p. 16.
  7. ↑ "Capital Building Programme". Hansard. 26 January 1996. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
  8. ↑ Mulcahy, Linda; Rowden, Emma (2019). The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0429558689.
  9. ↑ "Southwark Crown Court". london-se1.co.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  10. ↑ Halliday, Josh (28 April 2014). "Max Clifford found guilty of indecently assaulting teenage girls". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Rolf Harris guilty of indecent assault". RTÉ News. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  12. ↑ "Dave Lee Travis found guilty of indecent assault". BBC News. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Hill, Amelia (8 April 2022). "Boris Becker found guilty of four charges under Insolvency Act". the Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  14. ↑ Payne, Josh (12 October 2023). "Ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone admits fraud after failing to declare £400 million". Evening Standard. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  15. ↑ "Bernie Ecclestone given suspended sentence after pleading guilty to fraud". The Guardian. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
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