Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Assizes Manchester c 1910


2 comments:

Hels said...

Normally neo-gothic was way over the top, but I suppose it was a court house after all, and they did want to frighten the poor sods into behaving well. Is the building still standing? and not modernised?

Hermes said...

The Manchester Assize Courts were law courts once located on Great Ducie Street in Strangeways, Manchester in England.

Designed by Alfred Waterhouse in the neo-Gothic style, construction began in 1859 and was completed in 1864. This was Waterhouse's first major commission, won by open competition, and the nearby 1862 Strangeways Prison was also his design.

Widely praised, the building was demolished beginning in 1957, due to incendiary bomb damage caused during World War 2. The building also contained exterior sculptures by Thomas Woolner and the firm of O'Shea and Whelan.

Fear is the right word. It features in a childrens book (name escapes me) of the time and no doubt some poor hungry waif felt his place in the scheme of things!