Editing Old Bailey (section)

==History==
[[File:West View of Newgate by George Shepherd (1784-1862) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Newgate Prison in 1810. For much of its history, the "Old Baily" court (among other spellings seen) was attached to the gaol.]]
[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 058 - Old Bailey edited.jpg|thumb|An Old Bailey [[trial]], {{Circa|1808}}]]
[[File:William Penn & William Mead - plaque - 01.jpg|thumb|Plaque commemorating [[Bushel's Case]] of 1670]]
[[File:Justice statue on Central Criminal Court, London - 2022-09-10.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Lady Justice]] statue on the top of the court building]]
{{Annotated image
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| caption = A small Sessions House at the time (in black at centre near red line), the court is shown in Christopher and John Greenwood's 8 inch-to-mile map published in 1827 from an 1830 republication.
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[[File:Southblockoldbailey.jpg|thumbnail|right|South Block extension]]

The court originated as the [[Quarter sessions|sessions house]] of the [[Lord Mayor of London|Lord Mayor]] and [[Sheriffs of the City of London]] and of [[Middlesex]]. In addition to sessions court, the Old Bailey also held trials, similar to the travelling [[Courts of Assize]] held in other parts of England and Wales.<ref>{{cite news |last=Petschek |first=Willa |title=The Best Way to See The Old Bailey Is To Commit Murder. But There Are Alternatives |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/04/archives/the-best-way-to-see-the-old-bailey-is-to-commit-murder-but-there.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=4 July 1971 |access-date=23 October 2020 |issn=0362-4331 |language=en-US}}</ref> The original medieval court is first mentioned in 1585; it was next to the older [[Newgate Prison]], and seems to have grown out of the endowment to improve the gaol and rooms for the sheriffs, made possible by a gift from 15th-century Lord Mayor [[Richard Whittington]]. It was destroyed in the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666 and rebuilt in 1674, with the court open to the weather to prevent the spread of disease.<ref>{{cite web |title=Old Bailey |url=https://www.e-architect.co.uk/london/old-bailey |publisher=E-Architect |date=22 June 2007 |access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref>

The building was re-fronted in 1734, so as to enclose the court and reduce the influence of spectators: this led to outbreaks of [[typhus]], notably in 1750 when 60 people died, including the Lord Mayor Sir [[Samuel Pennant]] and two judges, Sir [[Thomas Abney]] and [[Charles Clarke (judge)|Charles Clarke]].<ref>{{cite work|title=The life of John Heysham, M.D. and his correspondence with Mr. Joshua Milne relative to the Carlisle bills of mortality|page=61|date=1870|author=Lonsdale, Henry; Milne, Joshua|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofjohnheysha00lonsrich/page/61/}}</ref> It was rebuilt again in 1774 and a second courtroom was added in 1824. Over 100,000 criminal trials were carried out at the Old Bailey between 1674 and 1834.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Gugliotta |first=Guy |date=April 2007 |title=Digitizing the Hanging Court |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/digitizing-the-hanging-court-150729037/ |magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |access-date=12 September 2019}}</ref> In 1834, it was renamed from the Assize Court for London to the Central Criminal Court.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/criminal-court-cases-old-bailey-the-central-criminal-court/|title=Criminal court cases: Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court)|publisher=National Archives|access-date=18 November 2024}}</ref>

The court was envisaged as that where only criminals accused of crimes committed in the City and Middlesex were tried. However, in 1856, there was public revulsion at complaints sent to police against doctor [[William Palmer (murderer)|William Palmer]] that he was a poisoner and murderer. This led to fears that he could not receive a fair trial in his native [[Staffordshire]]. The [[Central Criminal Court Act 1856]] was passed to enable his trial, and others with a public profile, to be held at the Old Bailey.<ref name="knott">{{cite book |last=Knott |first=George H. |date=1912 |title=The Trial of William Palmer |series=Notable English Trials |url=https://archive.org/details/trialofwilliampa00palmiala |location=Edinburgh / London |publisher=William Hodge & Co |page=12 |quote=The trial marked an important step in English criminal procedure. In the ordinary course Palmer would have been tried by an Assize Court in Staffordshire, but the prejudice against him there was so strong that it was felt he would not have a fair trial. An Act was therefore passed, the 19 Vict. cap. 16, for enabling the trial to take place at the Central Criminal Court in London. Since then that Act has been available in any similar circumstances. |access-date=21 August 2018}}</ref> In London [[Cant (language)|cant]] it was called ''The Gate'', an abbreviation of Newgate.<ref>{{cite book|title=A London dictionary and guide book for 1879 |last= Dickens|first=Charles|url=https://archive.org/details/londondictionary0000dick_v3r5|year=1972|publisher=Howard Baker Press|isbn= 978-0-7030-0018-7}}</ref>

The Old Bailey adjoined Newgate Prison until the jail's 1902 closure. [[Public execution|Hangings were a public spectacle]] in the street outside until May 1868. The condemned would be led along Dead Man's Walk between the buildings, and many were buried in the walk itself. Large, rowdy crowds sometimes gathered and pelted the condemned with rotten fruit and vegetables and stones.<ref name="Sunday Times"/> Some sources claim that, after 28 people were crushed to death when a pie-seller's stall overturned, a tunnel was made between the prison and [[St Sepulchre-without-Newgate|St Sepulchre's church]] opposite the crossroads, to allow the chaplain to minister to the condemned without having to force his way through crowds;<ref name="Sunday Times"/> but there are no known primary sources or photographic evidence that indicate that it actually existed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://londonist.com/2015/04/londons-rumoured-secret-tunnels |title=London's Rumoured Secret Tunnels |website=[[Londonist]] |date=April 2015 |first=Matt |last=Brown}}</ref>

The present building dates from 1902 and was officially opened by King [[Edward VII]] on 27 February 1907. It was designed by [[E. W. Mountford]] and co-occupies the site of the demolished prison. Above the main entrance is inscribed the admonition: "Defend the Children of the Poor & Punish the Wrongdoer".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.emporis.com/buildings/156142/central-criminal-court-london-united-kingdom|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018195626/https://www.emporis.com/buildings/156142/central-criminal-court-london-united-kingdom|url-status=usurped|archive-date=18 October 2020|title=Central Criminal Court|publisher=Emporis|access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref>

On the dome above the court stands the court's symbolic gilt bronze statue of [[Lady Justice]] by sculptor [[F. W. Pomeroy]] (made 1905–1906).<ref>{{cite web |title=Justice – Frederick William Pomeroy |url=http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/pomeroy/25.html |website=Victorian Web |access-date=6 November 2019}}</ref> She holds a sword in her right hand and the scales of justice in her left. The statue is popularly supposed to show [[Blind justice (concept)|blind Justice]], but the figure is not blindfolded: the courthouse brochures explain that this is because Lady Justice was originally not blindfolded, and because her "maidenly form" is supposed to guarantee her impartiality which renders the blindfold redundant.<ref>{{cite book |last=Colomb |first=Gregory G. |title=Designs on Truth: The Poetics of the Augustan Mock-Epic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=trgG0BAQ4xkC&pg=PA50 |location=University Park, PA |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press |year=1992 |page=50 |isbn=9780271039640 |oclc=463716684}}</ref>

During [[the Blitz]] of the Second World War, the Old Bailey was bombed and severely damaged, but reconstruction work restored most of it in the early 1950s. In 1952, the restored interior of the Grand or Great Hall of the Central Criminal Court was once again open. This hall (underneath the dome) is decorated with paintings commemorating the Blitz, as well as quasi-historical scenes of [[St Paul's Cathedral]] with nobles outside. Running around the entire hall are a series of axioms, some of biblical reference. They read:<ref>{{cite book |last=Daly |first=Mark |title=Unseen London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BJq9CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT108 |publisher=Frances Lincoln |year=2014 |isbn=978-0711235519}}</ref>

{{poemquote|&quot;The law of the wise is a fountain of life"
"[[Salus populi suprema lex esto|The welfare of the people is supreme]]"
"Right lives by law and law subsists by power"
"Poise the cause in justice's equal scales"
"Moses gave unto the people the laws of God"
[[Magna_Carta#Clauses_in_detail|London shall have all its ancient rights]]&quot;}}

Between 1968 and 1972, a new South Block, designed by the architects [[Donald McMorran]] and George Whitby, was built to accommodate more modern courts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://c20society.org.uk/building-of-the-month/central-criminal-court-extension-london|title=Central Criminal Court Extension, London|publisher=20th Century Society|access-date=18 October 2020}}</ref>

In 1973, the [[Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade|Belfast Brigade]] of the [[Provisional IRA]] [[1973 Old Bailey bombing|exploded a car bomb]] in the street outside, killing one and injuring 200 people. A shard of glass is preserved as a reminder, embedded in the wall at the top of the main stairs.<ref name="Sunday Times"/>

The hall (and its floor) was decorated with many busts and statues, chiefly of British monarchs, but also of legal figures, and those who achieved renown by campaigning for improvement in prison conditions from 1700 to 1900. This part of the building also housed the [[Stenography|stenographers']] offices until the stenographers were replaced by technology in March 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/for-the-record-stenographers-put-down-their-pens-at-the-old-bailey-7583250.html|title=For the record, stenographers put down their pens at the Old Bailey|date=23 March 2012|work=Evening Standard|location=London}}</ref> On 7 February 2024, around 1,500 people were forced to evacuate the building following a fire and reports of five separate explosions at the rear of the Central Criminal Court. Defendants on remand were returned to prison and juries were sent home.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68225302|title=Old Bailey: Central Criminal Court in London evacuated after fire|website=BBC News |date=7 February 2024|access-date=7 February 2024}}</ref>