Description

WOLVERHAMPTON

SO9198NW NORTH STREET 895-1/11/276 (West side) 16/07/49 The Law Courts (Formerly Listed as: NORTH STREET, Wolverhampton (West side) Town Hall)

GV II

Shown on O.S. map as Town Hall. Town Hall, now Crown Courts. 1867-71. By E.Bates. Ashlar with brick returns, slate roofs. 2 storeys with attic; 15 bays, centre bay and 2 bays at each end project. French Renaissance style. Rock-faced plinth, band over ground floor, giant angle pilasters and top entablature with balustraded parapet; centre bay has paired pilasters. Ground floor has segmental-headed windows with keystones and sashes; 1st floor has round-headed casement windows in recesses with flat pilasters, archivolts and keystones, that to centre is Venetian window with enriched spandrels and large keystone, bracketed balcony has panel with town arms; frieze above is panelled. Segmental-headed central entrance has architrave, keystone and lamp bracket with later lamp, paired panelled doors. Central bay has clock to parapet with segmental pediment and 6 flanking urns, domical vault with iron cresting and 2 enriched bulls' eyes; flanking stacks with cornices; end bays have round-headed dormer windows with segmental pediments and flanking urns, pavilion roofs have iron cresting and flanking stacks. Returns have similar treatment to 1st 2 bays with blind windows, the rest of brick with windows in round-headed recesses over basement due to slope of ground, 3 bays to right return have large windows to former council chamber. INTERIOR: octagonal entrance hall has piers with Corinthian capitals, coved ceiling and lantern with moulded surround; elliptical arch to entrance has coffered soffit, wood balustraded balcony above; entrances to left and right have panelled pilaster strips and friezes under consoled segmental pediments and paired panelled doors; staircase leads off hall to rear, square balusters to swept-out handrails, statue of G.B.Thorneycroft, the 1st mayor, 1851, taken from his grave in Wolverhampton Cemetery in 1874; other faces have niches with coffered vaulting; floor has central panel of encaustic tiles; No 2 court, formerly council chamber, has panelled walls and fittings and coved canopy with central domical vault to dais; stained glass to windows; Ionic columns to balcony. Panelled Mayor's Parlour with ribbed ceiling, open pedimented doorway and Ionic pilasters to overmantle of fireplace. (West KJ: Merridale Heritage Trail: Wolverhampton: P.10).

Listing NGR: SO9126198714

External Links

• The Law Courts at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26497537

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments