Wolverhampton Combined Court Centre

Wolverhampton Combined Court Centre
Wolverhampton Combined Court Centre
Location	Pipers Row, Wolverhampton
Coordinates	52°35′04″N2°07′20″W / 52.5844°N 2.1222°W / 52.5844; -2.1222 Coordinates: 52°35′04″N2°07′20″W / 52.5844°N 2.1222°W / 52.5844; -2.1222
Built	1990
Architect	Norman and Dawbarn
Architectural style(s)	Modernist style
Shown in the West Midlands

The Wolverhampton Combined Court Centre is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as a County Court, which deals with civil cases, in Pipers Row, Wolverhampton, England.

History

Until the early 1990s, all criminal court hearings were held in the Old Town Hall in North Street. ^[1] However, as the number of court cases in Birmingham grew, it became necessary to commission a more modern courthouse for criminal matters. It was also intended that the building would become the venue for civil cases hearings, which had previously taken place in the old Assembly Rooms in Queen Street. ^{[2] [3]} The site selected by the Lord Chancellor's Department, on the east side of Pipers Row, had been occupied by a piece of land known in the 19th century as "Tomkys Yard" which had been occupied by a furniture store owned by Alexander Sloan & Company in the early 20th century. ^{[4] [5]}

The new building was designed by Norman and Dawbarn in the Modernist style, built in alternating bands of light and dark brown brick at a cost of £9.2 million, ^[6] and was completed in 1990. ^[7] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto Pipers Row. The left hand section of six bays was fenestrated by large casement windows on the first floor and by an irregular pattern of windows on the ground and second floors. The central section was formed by a large recess giving access to a full-height atrium fronted by a single-storey steel-framed canopy which projected forward. The right hand section of two bays was fenestrated in a similar style to the left hand section. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate ten courtrooms. ^[8]

Notable cases included trial and conviction of four members of the rock band, The Stone Roses , in October 1990, for criminal damage to the offices of their former record company, ^{[9] [10]} the trial and conviction of Sheila Jones, in November 2011, for the murder of her grandmother, ^{[11] [12]} and the trial and conviction of Ayman Aziz, in December 2018, for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in a Wolverhampton park. ^{[13] [14]}

References

1. "Wolverhampton Town Hall". Wolverhampton Archives. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
2. Historic England. "County Court (1207819)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 8 February 2022.
3. "Queen Street, Wolverhampton". Black Country History. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
4. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1914. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
5. "The Colourful Characters Of Pipers Row". Lost Wolverhampton. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
6. "Capital Building Programme". Hansard. 26 January 1996. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
7. Mulcahy, Linda; Rowden, Emma (2019). The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity. Taylor and Francis. ISBN   978-0429558689.
8. "Wolverhampton". Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
9. "The day The Stone Roses were in the dock at Wolverhampton Crown Court". Express and Star. 17 May 2016. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
10. "How The Stone Roses went from making rock history to getting arrested in Wales". Wales Online. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
11. "Woman Jailed For 'Brutal' Grandmother Murder". Sky News. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
12. "Woman jailed for murder of grandmother". Irish Examiner. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
13. "First picture of evil rapist Ayman Aziz who murdered schoolgirl Viktorija Sokolova in Wolverhampton park". Birmingham Mail. 25 July 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
14. "Viktorija Sokolova: Boy who murdered schoolgirl named as Ayman Aziz". BBC News. 25 July 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2022.

External links

• Court information