County Sessions House is a Grade II* listed building, located at the top end of William Brown Street near to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool city centre.
The Grade II* listed description given by Historic England reads as follows;
"SJ 3590 NW WILLIAM BROWN STREET L1
50/1359 Sessions House
14.3.75. G.V. II*
Courthouse. 1882-4. F. and G. Holme. Ashlar, with granite base. One storey with basement, 5 bays. Rusticated basement, windows with architraves and pediments on consoles. Composite portico of 8 paired columns, frieze bears inscription "COUNTY SESSIONS HOUSE" in plain capitals, Lancaster Arms in tympanum. Round-arched windows with Ionic angle pilaster, carved spandrels and panels over. Entrance with architrave and entablature, window above with atlantes. Side facades have similar treatment for 5 bays, then plainer yellow brick and stone. High, enriched parapet. 4 single columns on side elevation, and coupled pilasters. Interior staircase hall with saucer domes. Balustraded wall and iron gates. 2 stacks with moulded caps.
Listing NGR: SJ3502290816" SOURCE: (
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History of the building"The County Sessions House was built between 1882 and 1884 to house the Quarter Sessions for the West Derby Hundred of the county of Lancaster.
Quarter Sessions were courts in which cases involving non-capital offences were tried by magistrates. Until 1877, they were held in Liverpool at the court in Basnett Street and at the Kirkdale Sessions House attached to Kirkdale gaol. When the Prison Act of 1877 transferred prisons like Kirkdale from local authority control to the state, a new home had to be found for the Sessions. They were housed temporarily in St George's hall until the new Sessions House opened in Islington. The magistrates held their first meeting here on Monday 4th August 1884."
The architects of the building were Messrs. Francis and George Holme,who were members of an important Liverpool family of builders and railway contractors.
The exterior of the Sessions House has the county's coat of arms in the pediment over the main entrance and carved ornament by the architectural sculptors Norbury, Upton and Patterson of Liverpool.
Magistrates and barristers came in by the front door, solicitors and witnesses entered through a side door in Mill Lane, prisoners were delivered to the cells through a gate on the east side, and members of the public who came to watch the proceedings had their own entrance at the back.
Inside, the arrangement of the corridors and stairs was designed to ensure that these four categories of user did not have to meet until they confronted each other in one of the courtrooms.
The Session House ended its role as a courthouse when The Courts Act of 1971 abolished Quarter Sessions.
Following its closure as a courthouse the building has been in the care of National Museums Liverpool. From March 1986 to November 1991 it was home to the Merseyside Museum of Labour History.
Today it is used for staff offices and collections storage, for the Walker Art Gallery.
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