The Galleries of Justice Nottingham

A photo gallery video of Galleries of Justice

About
shared to you of our visit to the justice museum as its known now, an awesome place, a place in its day was full of sorrow, pain, darkness, death, fear, check out our other video of a paranormal investigation here.

Early history
The earliest confirmed use of the site for official purposes was by the Normans, who appointed sheriffs to keep the peace and collect taxes; hence the site was sometimes referred to as the Sheriff's Hall, the County Hall or the King's Hall. The first written record of the site being used as a law court dates from 1375. The first written reference to its use as a prison is in 1449.

Eighteenth century
Over the centuries, the courts and prison were developed and enlarged. In 1724, the courtroom floor collapsed. The Nottingham Courant in March 1724 recorded:

On Monday morning after the Judge had gone into the County Hall, and a great crowd of people being there, a tracing or two that supported the floor broke and fell in and several people fell in with it, about three yards into the cellar underneath. Some were bruised, but one man named Fillingham was pretty much hurt, one leg being stripped to the bone, and was much hurt. This caused a great consternation in the Court, some apprehending the Hall might fall, others crying out fire, etc., which made several people climb out of the windows. The judge, being also terribly frightened, cried out, "A plot! A plot!" but the consternation soon being over the Court proceeded to business.

The hall was rebuilt between 1769 and 1772. The architect was James Gandon of London and the cost around £2,500 (equivalent to £398,152 in 2021). The builder was Joseph Pickford of Derby. The design for the building involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing onto High Pavement: the right hand section of three bays featured a round headed doorway flanked by two round headed windows and full-height Ionic order columns; there was a rectangular blank panel above the doorway flanked by roundels. The inscription on the top of the building reads:

This County Hall was erected in the year MDCCLXX and in the tenth year of the reign of His Majesty George III.

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