Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14/02/2012

736-1/0/10004
01-SEP-05

BRIDGWATER
NORTHGATE
Courthouse

II


Magistrates' Court and attached former police station. 1911 with late C20 alterations. By the Borough Surveyor's Department. Red brick in English bond with stone dressings, string course and cornice in a Neo-Baroque style. Tall gable stacks comprising alternating bands of brick and stone and hipped, tiled roof topped by a louvered cupola and finial. Magistrates' court fronting onto Northgate, attached police station to left rear.
EXTERIOR: Single storey, symmetrical front elevation of five bays; the first and fifth breaking forwards. Central bay has principal entrance with an integral porch. A round-headed doorway with a moulded keystone, an elaborate architrave including free-standing Ionic columns and an open segmental pediment with a carved shield of arms, swags and garlands. Banded brick pilasters flank the window openings to bays two and four, with stone ones to those of bays one and five and central doorway. Bays two and four have pairs of flat-headed windows on each side of the entrance with stone eared architraves and keystones. Two outer bays have pointed open pediments with round-headed tripartite sash windows with keystones above. All windows are sashed with glazing bars. A commemorative stone, set within the right hand bay is inscribed: "THIS STONE WAS LAID BY H.W. POLLARD ESQ. J.P. MAYOR OF BRIDGWATER AUGUST 3RD 1911". Stone modillion cornice to front continues though left side elevation which has double-doored public entrance with moulded stone-dressed surround and rounded fanlight above. Two storey police station of brick with pebble-dash treatment to first floor. Pitched, tiled roof with external stacks, one of alternating bands of brick and stone. Rubbed brick lintels above window openings, some with ashlar keystones. Original casement windows.
INTERIOR: Court One retains good quality Edwardian courtroom fittings, including oak panelling, segmental pedimented door cases to public and magistrates' entrances and oak furnishings, including magistrate's bench and fixed benching to public seating areas. Large tripartite sashed window to rear wall . Dentillated cornice and decorative raised cartouches, with large rectangular roof lights to compartmented vaulted ceiling. Court Two has undergone refurbishment but retains original plasterwork cornice above modern suspended ceiling. The front entrance provides access to the magistrates' retiring room via a small vestibule with decorative plasterwork and flooring. The retiring room, at the front of the building, retains a similar standard of original features to Court One: oak doors and architrave, and decorative plasterwork treatment to the ceiling and cornice. Doorways lead to the two courts. Police station has plain corridors and offices. Cell block is largely original, with two of the original cells surviving. They retain white glazed brick lining throughout.
The linked late C20 extension to rear and right side of the original court house is not of special interest.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: This is a well preserved and architecturally distinguished example of this form of civic ensemble; the magistrates' court retains good quality Edwardian interiors that contribute strongly to the building's special interest and there is strong group value with the attached former police station.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672049

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback