Burnley Law Courts

Burnley Law Courts is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, and a County Court venue, which deals with civil cases, in Hammerton Street, Burnley, England.

Burnley Law Courts
Burnley Law Courts
Location	Hammerton Street, Burnley
Coordinates	53°47′16″N 2°14′50″W / 53.7878°N 2.2473°W / 53.7878; -2.2473
Built	1981
Architect	Property Services Agency
Architectural style(s)	Modernist style
Shown in Lancashire

History

Until the early 1980s, criminal court hearings in Burnley were held in the courtroom in Burnley Town Hall.^[1] However, as the number of court cases in Burnley grew, it became necessary to commission a more substantial courthouse for criminal court hearings. The site selected by the Lord Chancellor's Department had accommodated a series of rows of terraced housing (Mount Pleasant Street, Howarth Street and Whittam Street).^[2] These streets had been part of the Weaver's Triangle area of Burnley and the buildings, which were in a poor state, were demolished in the 1930s.^[3]

The new building was designed by the Property Services Agency in the Modernist style, built in buff brick at a cost of £1.5 million,^[4] and was opened in 1981.^[5][6] The design involved an asymmetric main frontage in two sections facing onto Whittam Street. The left-hand section of four bays was well set back from the road: the right-hand bay, which was slightly projected forward, featured a four-door opening, surmounted by a Royal coat of arms, with a small casement window on the first floor. On the ground floor, the other bays in that section were fenestrated by casement windows and were separated by buttresses which supported the first floor structure: the first floor structure was cantilevered out over the pavement, fenestrated with casement windows and clad in dark brown panels. The right-hand section was irregularly fenestrated with casement windows and featured a canted recess, containing a single first-floor window, in the right-hand bay. Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate five courtrooms.^[7]

In 2008, a member of a jury in a sex abuse case was dismissed, after she used a poll on her Facebook page to help her to decide whether the defendant in the case was guilty or not guilty.^[8]

Notable cases have included the trial and acquittal of the actor, Peter Adamson, in July 1983, on charges of indecent assault,^[9][10] and the trial and conviction of another actor, Jody Latham, in December 2012, for growing cannabis in his garden: Latham was given a suspended prison sentence.^[11][12][13]

References

1. "Burnley Town Hall's £2.7m. four-year restoration". Burnley Express. 5 December 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
2. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1914. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
3. "Mount Pleasant Street, Burnley". Red Rose Collections. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
4. "Capital Building Programme". Hansard. 26 January 1996. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
5. "Law Courts and Courtrooms 1: The Buildings of the Criminal Law". Historic England. 1 August 2016. p. 16. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
6. Mulcahy, Linda; Rowden, Emma (2019). The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0429558689.
7. "Burnley". Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
8. Brooks, Graham (2019). Criminal Justice and Corruption State Power, Privatization and Legitimacy. Springer International Publishing. p. 118. ISBN 978-3030160388.
9. "Actor never recovered from trial". The Globe and Mail. 19 February 2002. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
10. Thomas, Dave (2022). Director's Tale. Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1801502382.
11. "Ex-EastEnders star Jody Latham spared jail for cannabis production". BBC News. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
12. "Shameless and EastEnders star Jody Latham in court over cannabis farm". Manchester Evening News. 15 August 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
13. "'Shameless' star Jodie Latham must pay back £1 after drugs case". Burnley Express. 28 May 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2023.

External links

• Court information