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#AceHistoryDesk – The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The street outside follows the route of the ancient wall around the City of London, which was part of the fortification’s bailey, hence the metonymic name.Central Criminal Court of England and WalesOld Bailey

The Old Bailey in 2004JurisdictionEngland and WalesLocationLondon, EC4Coordinates51°30′57″N 0°6′7″WRecorder of LondonCurrentlyMark LucraftSince14 April 2020

The Old Bailey has been housed in a succession of court buildings on the street since the sixteenth century, when it was attached to the medieval Newgate gaol.

The current main building block was completed in 1902, designed by Edward William Mountford; its architecture is recognised and protected as a Grade II* listed building.^[1] An extension South Block was constructed in 1972, over the former site of Newgate gaol which was demolished in 1904.

It is on the site of the old Newgate Prison, some of whose stones were used in the new building, and the Old Bailey judges still on occasion carry posies of flowers, with which their predecessors protected themselves against both gaol fever (typhus) and the prevailing atrocious stench.

The Crown Court sitting in the Old Bailey hears major criminal cases from within Greater London. In exceptional cases, trials may be referred to the Old Bailey from other parts of England and Wales. As with most courts in England and Wales, trials at the Old Bailey are open to the public; however, they are subject to stringent security procedures.

The golden statue of Justice on top of the dome, not as usual blindfolded, but holding her sword and scales, was by F.W. Pomeroy, who also did the figures of the hooded recording angel flanked by Fortitude and Truth above the main entrance.

The building is officially the Central Criminal Court, but is almost always known as the Old Bailey, which is the name of the street and comes from a rampart, or bailey, constructed just outside the wall of the City in Norman times. The site was occupied in Roman days and there was probably once a Romano-British temple across the road from today’s court.

The original Sessions House for London criminal cases was built in 1539, at Newgate so that prisoners could be brought to it easily.

The accused was placed as far away from the judges on the opposite side of the courtroom as possible, so much so that a mirror and a sounding board were installed to allow them to see and hear him clearly. The jury started off on either side of the courtroom, but from the eighteenth century they had a single box to the right of the accused, where they would confer and decide their verdicts in full view.

When the courthouse was rebuilt in 1673, the ground floor and the courtroom were left open to the air as a precaution against gaol fever. Spectators flocked in, but the ground floor was enclosed in 1737, perhaps to limit their numbers as they could intimidate the jurors. In 1860, those who came paid entry fees to the court officials.

When the courthouse was rebuilt again in the 1770s, witnesses had a separate room to wait in, instead of hanging about outside or in a nearby tavern, and the jury had a room to retire to. More alterations were made in the next century and Newgate Prison itself was at last demolished in 1902.

The 1907 courthouse has seen many of the most famous trials in English legal history. The parade of notorious murderers tried there goes from Frederick Seddon and George ‘Brides-in-the-Bath’ Smith to Neville Heath, John Reginald Christie and the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’, Peter Sutcliffe.

Others brought to book at the Old Bailey include a corrupt policeman called Goddard, who afterwards used his ill-gotten loot to found Chessington Zoo, William Joyce (‘Lord Haw-Haw’) and the Kray brothers. The building was badly damaged in the Blitz in 1941 and a new extension, opened in 1970, was bombed by the IRA in 1973.

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