MAGISTRATES COURT

The former Magistrates Court was built by Swanson Brothers between 1911 and 1913 to the design of Public Work's Department architect George B H Austin. The two storey court sits on a massive plinth of rock-faced Batesford limestone. Dressed limestone faces the brick, Gippsland marble and iron construction with interior joinery of blackwood. Roof materials are variously slate, corrugated iron or steel. Built on the site of the earlier Supreme Court, the building retains fittings from the earlier court including the Gothic canopy that judge Sir Redmond Barry sat under during the trial of Ned Kelly in 1880. The architectural style is Norman, otherwise known as the French Romanesque. The facade is a composition of gables, towers, turrets and arches. The main entrance sits on the prominent corner site of Russell Street and Latrobe Street and is an intricate symmetrical essay in the Norman style rising as a tower. It consists of copper clad turrets and grouped semi-circular headed windows over an entrance of five nested jamb shafts on squat Romanesque columns. The spreading staircase is of a basalt stone. The main entry vestibule rises to a drum over the marble staircases. The three principal court rooms have hammer beam roofs and consistent Norman detailing to the wall panels, the docks and benches. Within the internal fabric is a late version of the patented Tobin tube ventilation system.

How is it significant?

The former Magistrates Court is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?

The former Magistrates Court is architecturally significant for the adoption of the Norman or French Romanesque style. The style was considered appropriate for a court of law. The revival of the pure Norman style of Romanesque had associations to the underlying ancient heritage of English law and contrasted strongly to the American Romanesque developed in the late nineteenth century by the American architect HH Richardson, a style which itself had found a strong resonance in Victoria.

The former Magistrates Court is historically significant for its long and continuous association as a site of law court buildings, from the erection of the old Supreme Court in 1843 to the closure of the current building in 1994. The retention of furniture and fittings from the old Supreme Court contributes to the understanding of a continuous legal process. The site has been the setting of many historically significant trials, including at the old Supreme Court the Eureka rebels in 1855 and Ned Kelly in 1880, and in the former Magistrates Court several cases against Leslie (Squizzy) Taylor in the 1920s.

Group

Law Enforcement

Category

Law Court