Minshull Street Crown Court
Minshull Street Crown Court
TypeLaw courts
LocationManchester, England
Coordinates53°28′43″N 2°14′06″W / 53.4786°N 2.2349°W / 53.4786; -2.2349
AreaManchester City Centre
Built1868-71
ArchitectThomas Worthington
Architectural style(s)Gothic Revival style
Governing bodyMinistry of Justice (United Kingdom)
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated3 October 1974
Reference no.1219894
Minshull Street Crown Court is located in Greater Manchester
Minshull Street Crown Court
Location of Minshull Street Crown Court in Greater Manchester

Minshull Street Crown Court is a complex of court buildings on Minshull Street in Manchester. The court was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974.[1] It is one of two Crown Courts in Manchester, the other being Manchester Crown Court (Crown Square).[2]

History

Police Courts showing the 1990s extension

The foundation stone for the building was laid by the mayor on 10 July 1868.[3] The building was designed by the architect Thomas Worthington[4] and was completed in December 1871.[3][5]

The building is in Worthington's trademark Gothic Revival style with a massive corner tower and a chimney stack styled as a campanile. 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.[6] 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.[4] The interior court rooms "have been preserved with relatively few alterations."[4]

Following the completion of new Courts of Justice in Crown Square in May 1961, the Lord Chancellor's Department decided to close the Minshull Street building in 1989,[7] but as the volume of cases increased in the early 1990s, the Department decided to re-open the Minshull Street building again to support the Courts of Justice in Crown Square.[2] Between 1993 and 1996, the Minshull Street buildings were extensively modernised. The original courtyard was glazed over and an extension was added to the Aytoun Street side of the courts. The architect for these works was James Stevenson of the Hurd Rolland Partnership.[4] Internally, the modernised complex at Minshull Street was laid out to accommodate twelve courts.[8]

Notable cases include the conviction of the gambler, Ming Jiang, in February 2023, for the murder of his gambling companion, Yang Liu, whose headless body was found on a country lane.[9][10][11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Historic England. "Police Courts, Manchester (Grade II*) (1219894)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Why does Manchester have two Crown Courts?". Burton Copeland. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 "City Police and Sessions Courts Minshull Street, Manchester". The Manchester Group of the Victorian Society. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hartwell 2001, p. 172-3.
  5. ↑ Glinert, Ed (2008). The Manchester Compendium: A Street-by-Street History of England's Greatest Industrial City. ISBN 978-0141029306.
  6. ↑ Hartwell, Hyde & Pevsner 2004, p. ???.
  7. ↑ "Law Courts and Courtrooms 1: The Buildings of the Criminal Law". Historic England. 1 August 2016. p. 16. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  8. ↑ "Manchester Minshull Street". Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  9. ↑ "Headless body murder trial at Manchester Crown Court". ITV. 3 April 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "A man who murdered his gambling pal has been ordered to pay back the money he stole. But he's refusing to co-operate". Manchester Evening News. 11 September 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  11. ↑ "Body-in-suitcase trial: Gambler jailed for murdering friend". BBC. 2 May 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2023.

Sources

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