The Old Bailey is one of the most famous institutions commensurate to jurisprudence and crime in the UK and perhaps beyond. The building and courtrooms of the Old Bailey have been the stage for many of the country ' s highest structure criminal cases down the centuries and since the agnomen, as right as the building with its domed roof and gold statue of Lady Impartiality, have become symbolic of the judicial system and the courts of London and the UK.
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Background
The pet name the - Old Bailey ' is used to remit to what is more accurately the Central Criminal Expert for England and Wales ( Scotland & Northern Ireland have their own ) and the buildings that make up the peacemaker mingled. The courts are to be found on the edge of the City of London on the corner of the Old Bailey road and Newgate Street.
In its role as a crown court, the Old Bailey has and does witness the most significant and serious criminal cases from around the capital as well as a few, when their specific circumstances warrant it, from elsewhere across England and Wales. As a result it has the highest profile of any criminal court in the country and so it is referred to extensively in popular British culture. The iconic Lady Justice statue atop the domed roof symbolises British justice whilst the functional entrance to the courts in south of Old Bailey has become very familiar to us all from countless news reports down the years.
Early History
The common - use name for the courts is actually taken from the name of the street on which it is found. The name of the street in turn refers to the fact that it was historically the site of the western segment of the old wall, or bailey, surrounding the city of London. The wall originally dated from the Roman occupation and a small portion of it can still be seen in the basement of the Old Bailey court buildings.
The site immediately to the north of the Old Bailey was the location of a gate within these walls which could also trace its origins back to the Roman era and which sat across the old Silchester to Londinium Roman road. The imposing gate buildings, which became known as Newgate, were appropriated to house criminals entering or leaving the city and in 1188 the first incarnation of the infamous Newgate prison was constructed at the gate on the orders of Henry II.
The Old Bailey courthouses evolved as an addition to the Newgate prison whilst the prison complex was developed and improved in the 16th century using funding from the late Sir Richard Whittington ( the inspiration behind Dick Whittington ). The first record of the actual law court dates back to 1585 although that, along with the rest of the prison complex were destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire of London and whilst the prison was rebuilt in 1672, the courts were not reestablished for a further two years.
Part 2 of this article covers the expansion of the courts and the development of the modern Old Bailey.
Stuart Mitchell 2012
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