City Police Courts, Manchester

Police Courts

The City Police Courts, now commonly called Minshull Street Crown Court, is a complex of court buildings on Minshull Street in Manchester, designed in 1867–73 by the architect Thomas Worthington.^[1] The court is a Grade II* listed building as of 3 October 1974.^[2]

Police Courts showing the modern extension

The style is Worthington's trademark flamboyant Flemish Gothic with a massive corner tower and a chinney stack styled as a campanille. The courts are constructed in red brick with sandstone dressings and steeply-pitched slate roofs. There is a profusion of animal carving by Earp and Hobbs.^[3] Worthington drew both on his rejected designs for the Town Hall, and on his earlier plans for Ellen Wilkinson High School, although the central tower he used there is placed asymmetrically at the Police Courts, due to the constraints of the site.^[1] The interior court rooms "have been preserved with relatively few alterations."^[1]

In 1993-96, a modern extension was added to the Aytoun Street side of the courts.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Clare Hartwell Pevsner Architectural Guides: Manchester 2001; pp. 172-73
2. ^ http://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-388318-city-police-courts-manchester
3. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner; Clare Hartwell & Matthew Hyde, The Buildings of England, Lancashire: Manchester and the South East

Further reading

• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Hartwell, Clare & Hyde, Matthew, The Buildings of England: Lancashire - Manchester and the South East (2004) Yale University Press
• Hartwell, Clare Pevsner Architectural Guides: Manchester (2001) Yale University Press

Coordinates: 53°28′43″N 2°14′05″W / 53.4786°N 2.2348°W / 53.4786; -2.2348