Description

SD5429SW
941-1/12/176

PRESTON
LANCASTER ROAD (West side)
Sessions House

(Formerly Listed as: LANCASTER ROAD (West side) Crown Court and Sessions House)

27/09/79

GV
II*
Court house. 1900-3, by Henry Littler. Large rectangular block on site bounded by Harris Street to the south and Lancaster Road and Birley Street to east and west respectively. Sandstone ashlar (roof concealed). Edwardian Baroque style.

Three high storeys over basement, symmetrical on all three sides, the principal facade to Harris Street 1:5:1:5:1 windows, the centre and end bays breaking forwards, with a plinth, the ground floor treated as a rustic, coupled giant Ionic columns to the centre and the outer bays, moulded frieze, modillioned cornice, pediments to the outer bays and an open-segmental pediment to the centre, a balustraded parapet as high as the pediments, and a tower over the centre.

The centre has a porch with blocked columns, a round-headed concave doorway with convex balcony over; above this a round-headed window with elaborate including figures on the pediment, then an oculus framed by swags; an embellished shield in the pediment; and a tall Baroque tower of four diminishing and successively set back stages, the three upper stages with free-standing Ionic columns and much enrichment. The rustic ground floor has wide semi-circular headed tripartite sashes, with blocked surrounds and voussoirs; the first floor and second floors have 24- and 12-pane sashes respectively, all with moulded architraves and those at first floor with cornices; and the outer bays have convex balconies to tall round-headed windows with enriched open pediments, and segmental-headed windows above. Hipped roof with enriched chimney stacks. The east and west facades, 1:3:1 windows, have centres recessed above the rustic, with four Ionic semi-columns and windows like those at the front, and outer bays with pedimented architraves to the windows; the east side has two round-headed doorways in the rustic, and the west side has a segmental-headed archway to the left.

INTERIOR: rich decoration including two principal courtrooms with pilastered panelling, panelled library with swags etc., panelled former dining room with fine architraves to doors, and magistrates' cloakroom furnished in Purbeck marble.

Listing NGR: SD5404529476

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Sessions House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7456158

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

• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)