Court venues, 1808 until the present

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

For centuries petty offenders were dealt with by the hundred courts, the Court of Whalesbone in the case of Brighton, but when this practice died out they were taken before the bench at Lewes. The first magistrates’ court in the town, still under the county bench, was established at the New Inn in North Street (now Clarence House) in 1808 with sessions held three days a week, but it was briefly transferred to the old Town Hall before moving to the Old Ship in 1814. In 1821-3 the sessions were held again at the New Inn, but then remained at the Old Ship until about 1832 when they were removed to the new Town Hall in Bartholomews.
In 1847 the petty sessions were joined at the Town Hall by a county court which was soon removed to 151 North Street and then to Prince’s Street. In 1869 a new county court building opened at the bottom of Church Street with two court rooms. Built in red brick with stone dressings and a royal coat of arms over the western entrance, the building was used until 1967 and is now a library store. Borough quarter sessions commenced on 26 March 1855, two months after the first borough bench of magistrates sat with the mayor as chief magistrate. During the reconstruction of the Town Hall in 1897-9 the bench sat at the building now occupied by the public library.
On 3 November 1967 the Lord Chancellor, Lord Gardiner, opened a new court building at Edward Street and John Street. Costing £665,000 and designed by Percy Billington, it housed magistrate, juvenile, coroner, county and quarter session (later crown) courts. On 23 October 1985 an extension to the high court and county court was opened in William Street by senior circuit judge Granville Wingate. Between 1986 and 1989 the former parochial offices in Prince’s Street were used by magistrates as the Edward Street building was refurbished. The latter was formally reopened by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, on 27 April 1989, the new facilities including three crown courts and eight magistrate courts.

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder.

The following resource(s) is quoted as a general source for the information above: {15,24,112,115,123}

Comments about this page

  • Can someone tell me if this picture is of the Parochial Offices in Princes Street, behind Old Steine? If so I used to play around there as a kid in the 1950’s. The bow fronted building on the left was a pub, and the building on the right was waste ground, a cleared bomb site, which was a car park. There was another bomb site, uncleared, just to the left of the offices.
    Editor’s Note:
    Yes Jim you are exactly right as to the location.  Maybe you would like to tell us more about the area when you were a kid? Contact me on:
    jennifer@mybrightonandhove.org.uk

    By Jim Tarbet (02/01/2008)
  • At one time the building was the head office of the Citizen Regency Building Society.

    By R.T.Fishall (15/05/2012)

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