Criminal Courts in 1900 London

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The Central Criminal Court: The Old Bailey

The widening of Ludgate Hill was accomplished in a quarter of a century; and the rebuilding of the Central Criminal Court at one time bade fair to be as dilatory a process.

County of London Session Courts

The county of London Sessions, held north of the Thames at Clerkenwell, and south of it at Newington Causeway; the Surrey Sessions with headquarters at Kingston, Surrey; and the Middlesex Quarter Sessions centred at the Guildhall, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, were in a sense local representatives of the Central Criminal Court in 1900.

Session Courts: Clerkenwell

The cases tried at Clerkenwell were generally very numerous, and the criminals for the most part were drawn from the lowest and the poorest classes, quite unable of themselves to obtain the intervention of a solicitor, much less of a counsel; but money for their defence was often derived from a "lead," or benefit harmonic meeting held at some tavern on behalf of the accused, by which means a barrister was instructed, and a copy of the deposition or evidence already taken before a magistrate, was given to him.

Session Courts: Newington Causeway

About the other Sessional Courts there is little to remark; but judging from the experiences of His Honour W. R. McConnell, Esq, the Chairman, a peculiar sense of humour must have pervaded his Court over the water at Newington Causeway.

Next: The Old Bailey