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The new Law Courts competition, 1866-67

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

M. H. Port
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Extract

It is just a century since an architectural competition was held for building new courts of justice in London, and it may be an appropriate moment to re-examine the history of that unfortunate episode. Only forty-two years earlier a new range of law courts had been completed at Westminster to the designs of Sir John Soane (1753-1837). Because of interference by the House of Commons, these courts proved inadequate from the start. A difficult task had been imposed on Soane: Westminster Hall had for centuries been the seat of the courts of law; and when it became necessary to provide more adequately for the needs of justice in the early 1820s, enthusiasm for tradition and legal conservatism combined to demand that the new courts should be as close as possible to the Hall. A restricted site to the north-west was available as a result of the demolition of the old Exchequer Buildings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Architectural History , Volume 11 , 1968 , pp. 75 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1968

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References

Notes

1 Soane, J., Designs for Public Improvements (1827), pp.8–10.Google Scholar

2 Parliamentary Papers, 1860, xxxi Google Scholar, Report of Commissioners to inquire into concentration of superior courts of law and equity, p. 230.

3 Selborne, Lord, Memorials Personal and Political, i (1898), p. 23.Google Scholar

4 Parl. Pap., 1842, x, pp. 1 et seq.Google Scholar

5 Parl. Pap., 1845, xii, pp.5 et seq.Google Scholar

6 Parl. Pap., 1861, xiv, Select Committee on Courts of Justice Building (Money) Bill.Google Scholar

7 Parl. Pap., 1860, xxxi, Report on concentration, q.700.Google Scholar

8 Public Record Office, Works 12/34 (4), ff.1-8.

9 Atlay, J. B., The Victorian Chancellors, ii (1908), p.256 Google Scholar; Nash, T. A., Life of Richard Lord Westbury, ii (1888), p. 45.Google Scholar

10 Parl. Pap., 1861, xiv,. p. 187. Abraham was an experienced surveyor and valuer who had arranged the construction of Victoria Street.Google Scholar

11 PRO, Works 12/32/4, f. 10.

12 Report, Parl. Pap., 1860, xxxi.Google Scholar The further fusing of common law and equity by legislation of that year made the step still more desirable.

13 ibid., p.x.

14 ibid., p.v.

15 British Museum, Add. MS. 44337, ff. 187–191.

16 ibid., 44636, ff.55-58.

17 ibid., 44337, f. 197.

18 Nash, , Westbury, ii, p. 45.Google Scholar The Museum Trustees were urging the Government to provide a separate museum for their natural history collections.

19 PRO Works 12/32/5.

20 ibid., 12/30(4), ff. 1–207.

21 BM, Add. MS. 44599, ff.29–42.

22 Selborne, , Memorials Personal and Political, i, p. 24 Google Scholar; Atlay, , Victorian Chancellors, ii, p. 428.Google Scholar

23 Quoted, Nash, , Westbury, ii, p. 100.Google Scholar

24 The following account of the Commission's work is based, unless specific references are given, on its report and minutes, Parl. Pap., 1871, xx (indexed).

25 Scott, George Gilbert, Personal and Professional Recollections (1879), p. 273.Google Scholar

26 Parliamentary Debates, 3 ser., clxvi, 802 Google Scholar; clxxvi, 373; clxxxvi, 2019.

27 BM, Add MS. 44607, ff.61-62 (printed).

28 Athenaeum, 1867, p. 162.Google ScholarPubMed

29 Parl. Deb., 3 ser., clxxxv, 820.Google Scholar

30 Athenaeum, 1867, p. 162.Google ScholarPubMed

31 Lockwood, , Report on a design for the Concentration of the Law Courts (1867), p. 14.Google Scholar Lockwood had been the first to apply for inclusion in the competition (23 Feb. 1865) and the only one chosen from those whose applications are extant, PRO, Works 12/33 (1).

32 e.g. ‘Remarks on the album of Villard de Honnecourt', R.I.B.A. Transactions, 1858-59.Google Scholar

33 Parl. Deb., 3 ser., clxxxv, 814–823 (22 Feb. 1867).Google Scholar The belief that Gothic was the predetermined style is mentioned in Builder, xxv (1867), p. 109,Google Scholar and Building News, xiv (1867), p. 58 Google Scholar (where the commission was critized for not choosing the twelve best Goths).

34 PRO, Works 12/33 (1), f.20; Spectator, 1867, p.212.

35 BM, Add. MS. 44607, ff.61-62.

36 Each competitor submitted remarks (frequently illustrated) on his designs to the commissioners, and these were published during 1867.1 have based this and the following paragraphs on these remarks, as well as the lithographed sets of plans.

37 Spectator, 23 Feb. 1867, in which all designs were reviewed. The Building News declined to take any notice of Abraham's design.

38 Building News, xiv (1867), p. 153.Google Scholar

39 Quoted by Hitchcock, H.-R., Early Victorian Architecture in Britain, i (1954), p. 606.Google Scholar

40 Athenaeum, 1867, p. 391 Google ScholarPubMed; Builder, xxv (1867), pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

41 Scott, , Recollections, p.274 Google ScholarPubMed; Building News, xiv (1867), p.57.Google Scholar

42 Builder, xxv (1867), pp.89–90 Google Scholar; Building News, xiv (1867), p.234.Google Scholar

43 Street to A. H. Layard MP, 24 June 1868, BM, Add. MS. 38995, f.233.

44 Building News, xiv (1867), p. 186 Google Scholar; Builder, xxv (1867), pp.69, 108.Google Scholar

45 Building News, xiv (1867), p.219.Google Scholar

46 Athenaeum, 1867, p.391.Google Scholar

47 Scott, , Recollections, p.275 Google ScholarPubMed; Athenaeum, 1867, p.227 Google ScholarPubMed; Building News, xiv (1867), p. 202 Google Scholar; Builder, xxv 1867, pp. 309–311.Google Scholar

48 Athenaeum, 1867, p.327 Google ScholarPubMed; Building News, xiv (1867), pp.58, 95.Google Scholar

49 Winterbotham, M. S. P., 29 June 1868, Parl. Deb., 3 ser., cxciii, 337–338.Google Scholar

50 Builder, xxv (1867), pp.154, 175, 193.Google Scholar

51 Scott, , Recollections, p.275 Google Scholar; Builder, xxv (1867), p.630 Google Scholar; Street, A. E., Memoir of G. E. Street, R.A. (1888), p. 145 Google Scholar; Parl. Pap., 1871, xx, p. 106.Google Scholar Scott's later, misleading version is followed by Kinnard, J. in ‘G. E. Street, the Law Courts and the 'Seventies', in Victorian Architecture (ed. Ferriday, P., 1963).Google Scholar

52 Parl. Pap., 1868-69, xlvii, p.681.Google Scholar

53 ibid.

54 PRO, Works 17/13/15, Minutes of Judges, 18 Feb. 1868.

55 Parl. Deb., 3 ser., cxciii, 342, 29 June 1868.Google Scholar

56 PRO, Works 12/33 (1), ff.83–90; The Times, 15 June 1868.

57 ‘… after my recent experience, it would surprise me little if I were to find that the whole thing has been put forward only as a blind to be withdrawn as soon as it has served its purpose’ (Barry to A. H. Layard MP, 13 July 1868, BM, Add. MS. 38995, f.247).

58 BM, Add. MS. 38995, f.233; Parl. Deb., 3 ser., cxciii, 324–343, 29 June 1868.Google Scholar

59 Recollections, p. 276.

60 Street, A. E., Memoir, p. 175.Google Scholar