- County Sessions House, Liverpool
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Coordinates: 53°24′37″N 2°58′44″W / 53.4102°N 2.9788°W
County Sessions House 
County Sessions HouseLocation: William Brown Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England OS grid reference: SJ 350 908 Built: 1882–84 Architect: F & G Holme Architectural style(s): Neoclassical Listed Building – Grade II* Designated: 14 March 1975 Reference #: 1063783 
Location in MerseysideThe County Sessions House stands at the top of William Brown Street in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, to the east of the Walker Art Gallery. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.[1]
History
The courthouse was built between 1882 and 1884, and was designed by the Liverpool architects F & G Holme.[2] It functioned as a local county courthouse, and contained three courtrooms, chambers for barristers and judges, cells, and facilities for administration. It is no longer used for these purposes.[3]
Architecture
The building is constructed in ashlar stone on a granite base.[1] Although its appearance is Neoclassical, its style is described as being "late Victorian" and "derived from Renaissance Venice rather than ancient Greece and Rome".[2] It is built in a single storey with a basement, and its front has five bays. The basement is rusticated. At its front is a portico with eight paired columns, above which is a frieze bearing the inscription "COUNTY SESSIONS HOUSE".[1] The tympanum contains the arms of Lancashire County Council.[4] The windows have round arches and are flanked by Ionic pilasters. At the sides, five bays have similar columns, beyond which the building is plainer, in yellow brick and stone.[1] The interior is complex and richly decorated.[1][3] It contains an Italian Renaissance staircase.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Sessions House, Liverpool", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1063783, retrieved 6 August 2011
- ^ a b Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 300, ISBN 0-300-10910-5
- ^ a b Pye, Ken (2011), Discover Liverpool, Liverpool: Trinity Mirror Media, p. 23, ISBN 978-1-906802-90-5
- ^ a b Sessions House, Liverpool Architectural Society, http://www.liverpoolarchitecture.com/tours/buildings/building.php?id=5, retrieved 6 August 2011
Categories:- Grade II* listed buildings in Liverpool
- Courts in Liverpool
- Neoclassical architecture in England
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