Southwark Crown Court

History

Until the 1980s, the principal criminal court for south London was the Sessions House in Newington Causeway. However, as the number of criminal cases in south London grew, it became necessary to commission additional courthouse capacity for south London. The site selected, on the south bank of the River Thames, had been occupied by a large warehouse known as "Willson's Wharf", which was badly damaged in a fire in August 1971. The warehouse was demolished and the empty site was acquired by the Lord Chancellor's Department at a cost of £2 million.

The new building was designed by the Property Services Agency in the modern style, built in yellow brick at a cost of £12.6 million, and was opened in 1983. The design involved a broadly symmetrical three-storey main frontage facing south onto English Grounds. It featured a long flat portico which was projected forward and supported by brick columns; it was fenestrated by small square casement windows on the ground floor and by rectangular casement windows on the first and second floors, and there was an additional, taller block behind the main frontage. A Royal coat of arms was mounted on the left hand side of the main frontage at first floor level. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate 15 courtrooms, making it the fourth largest court centre in the country and the main serious fraud centre for the area.

Notable cases

Notable cases have included the trial and conviction of the publicist, Max Clifford, in April 2014, for indecent assault, the trial and conviction of the entertainer, Rolf Harris, in June 2014, for indecent assault, the trial and conviction of the disc jockey, Dave Lee Travis, in September 2014, for indecent assault, the trial and conviction of the tennis player, Boris Becker, in April 2022, for breaches of the Insolvency Act, and the trial and conviction of former chief executive of the Formula One Group, Bernie Ecclestone, for fraud in October 2023.

References

References

1. (April 2008). "HMCS Framework Document". [[Her Majesty's Courts Service.
2. {{NHLE
3. (1971). "Ordnance Survey Map".
4. "LFB150 – 45th anniversary of Wilson's Wharf fire of 1971". London Fire Brigade.
5. Rock, Paul. (2019). "The Official History of Criminal Justice in England and Wales". Taylor and Francis.
6. (1979). "Construction". Department of the Environment..
7. (26 January 1996). "Capital Building Programme". Hansard.
8. (2019). "The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity". Taylor and Francis.
9. "Southwark Crown Court". london-se1.co.uk.
10. Halliday, Josh. (28 April 2014). "Max Clifford found guilty of indecently assaulting teenage girls". [[The Guardian]].
11. (30 June 2014). "Rolf Harris guilty of indecent assault". RTÉ News.
12. (23 September 2014). "Dave Lee Travis found guilty of indecent assault". BBC News.
13. Hill, Amelia. (8 April 2022). "Boris Becker found guilty of four charges under Insolvency Act".
14. Payne, Josh. (12 October 2023). "Ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone admits fraud after failing to declare £400 million".
15. (12 October 2023). "Bernie Ecclestone given suspended sentence after pleading guilty to fraud". The Guardian.