Victoria Law Courts

For much of the 19th century, criminal court cases were heard in the Public Office in Moor Street. However, in the early 1880s, as the number of court cases in Birmingham grew, the judicial authorities decided it was necessary to have a dedicated courthouse. The site they selected on Corporation Street had been occupied by the old Birmingham Workhouse, which had been built in 1734 and cleared away as part of a larger scheme by the mayor, Joseph Chamberlain, to demolish old slums. The foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria on 23 March 1887 in her Golden Jubilee year. Designed by Aston Webb & Ingress Bell of London after an open competition, assessed by architect Alfred Waterhouse, to…