Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green
| Middlesex Sessions House | |
|
Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 The Old Sessions House | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ31508210 |
| Location: | 51°31’21"N, 0°6’22"W |
| Village: | Clerkenwell |
| History | |
| Built 1782 | |
| By: | Thomas Rogers |
| Classical | |
| Information | |
The Sessions House on Clerkenwell in Middlesex, usually known as the Old Sessions House, is a magnificently neo-classical Georgian building looking out on Clerkenwell Green. In form and decoration it is an lavish celebration of Middlesex.
The hall was built in 1782 for the Justices of Middlesex, to the design of Thomas Rogers, and served as justices' county hall: a courthouse for for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions and an administrative centre, when the administration of the county was in the hands of the justices.
When first built, the hall was known as 'Hicks Hall' or ;New Hicks Hall' as it replaced the Jacobean county hall of that name that stood nearby in the middle of St John Street.
The Old Sessions House is today a Grade II* listed building.[1]
History
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The building was commissioned to replace Hicks Hall as the courthouse for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions: Hicks Hall had opened in 1612, funded by Sir Baptist Hicks, in gratitude to whom it was named. Hicks Hall in time begame dilapidated, and it was demolished in 1782.[2]
The Sessions House was designed by Thomas Rogers in the classical style and completed in 1782.[1][2] It served as the main judicial and administrative centre of Middlesex until county councils were created for administrative counties named after Middlesex and London in 1889. In this administrative division, the Sessions House was allocated to the 'London' council and the then Westminster Guildhal (where the Middlesex Guildhall now stands) to the 'Middlesex' council.
The council used the Sessions House for the local magistrates' courts until judicial business was transferred to the Sessions House in Newington Causeway, Surrey in 1921.[3] Its administrative work was moved to a grandiose, new-built home, known as County Hall, Lambeth.
From 1931 to 1973 the former Middlesex Sessions House served as the headquarters of Avery Weighing Machines, manufacturers of weighing-machines and scales.[4] After that company's departure, the building fell into further disrepair until, in 1978, it was acquired and restored by a masonic trust and the following year opened as the London Masonic Centre, incorporating conference and social facilities.[4][5]
In 2013 it was reported that the proprietors of Home House, a private members' club in London's West End, were in negotiations to acquire the building for use as a Clerkenwell Club.[6] However, in 2014, the building was actually acquired by Oliver and Ted Grebelius of Sätila Studios, who converted it into a restaurant and bar.[7][8]
Architecture
The Sessions House is substantially larger than Hicks Hall and was built in the classical style with four huge Ionic order columns supporting a pediment. In contrast with the modest sessions houses of earlier days, the new Middlesex Sessions House, designed by Thomas Rogers, was built with imperial grandeur in its proportions and decoration. It was enlarged, and remodelled on all but the main front by Frederick Hyde Pownall in 1860.[1][9]
The dome which covers its entrance hall and staircase is a copy of that of the Pantheon in Rome.[10]
Above the central window was a relief of the head of King George III carved by John Charles Felix Rossi and Giovanni Battista Locatelli.[11]
In reliefs on the front of the building are representations of justice and peace, the sword and Roman fasces as a symbol of civic authority, and in pride of place filling the centre of the pediment, the arms attributed the Middlesex and Essex: three seaxes in pale. The same arms are working repeatedly into the internal decoration.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Heritage List 1298072: Clerkenwell Conference Centre (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Temple, Philip (2008). "'Clerkenwell Green', in Survey of London: Volume 46, South and East Clerkenwell". London: British History Online. pp. 86–114. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol46/pp86-114. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ↑ "Bust: Old Middlesex Sessions House". London Remembers. https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/old-middlesex-sessions-house. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Temple 2008.
- ↑ The Old Sessions House - History Template:Webarchive
- ↑ Neville, Simon (27 September 2013). "Home House to woo London's tech staff with Clerkenwell club". The Independent (London). https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/home-house-to-woo-londons-tech-staff-with-clerkenwell-club-8844553.html. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
- ↑ "London's Old Sessions House to become a bar and restaurant". The Spaces. 19 May 2015. https://thespaces.com/londons-old-sessions-house-to-become-a-bar-and-restaurant/.
- ↑ "Neighbours back plans for restaurant with 'Victorian/colonial vibe' at Clerkenwell's Old Sessions House". Islington Gazette. 14 October 2019. https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/neighbours-back-plans-for-restaurant-with-victorian-colonial-vibe-at-clerkenwell-s-old-sessions-house-1-6322661.
- ↑ "Middlesex Sessions House". Prison History. https://www.prisonhistory.org/lockup/middlesex-sessions-house/. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
- ↑ "Clerkenwell Sessions House". Spitalfields Life. https://spitalfieldslife.com/2018/05/09/at-the-clerkenwell-sessions-house/. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
- ↑ "Middlesex Sessions House". London Remembers. https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/old-middlesex-sessions-house. Retrieved 18 October 2020.