Truro Crown Court

Court building in Truro, Cornwall, England

50°15′56″N 5°03′24″W / 50.2655°N 5.0566°W / 50.2655; -5.0566Built1988ArchitectEldred Evans and David ShalevArchitectural style(s)Modernist style

Listed Building – Grade II*

Designated18 April 2018Reference no.1451232

Location of Truro Crown Court in Cornwall

Truro Crown Court is a Crown Court venue which deals with criminal cases at Edward Street in Truro, Cornwall, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.^[1]

History

Until the late 1980s, judicial hearings in Truro were held in the old Shire Hall in Bodmin.^[2] However, as the number of court cases in Cornwall grew, it became necessary to commission a dedicated courthouse for criminal matters. The site selected by the Lord Chancellor's Department had been occupied by Truro Castle in the 13th century and, from around 1840, by a cattle market.^[1]^[3]

Construction on the new building began in February 1986. It was designed by Eldred Evans and David Shalev in the modernist style,^[4] built with walls covered in grey render at a cost of £4.9 million,^[5] and was completed in September 1988.^[6]^[7]^[8]

The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing down Edward Street. The left hand section was fronted by a relatively plain single storey wall, which projected forward in front of a two-storey rotunda with a conical roof. The right hand section featured a portico with a steep pediment containing a Royal coat of arms. Behind the main frontage, and largely out of sight, was a much large rotunda which formed the main circulation hub for the building.^[1] Internally, the building was laid out to accommodate four courtrooms.^[9] The design won the RIBA Building of the Year (a forerunner of the Stirling Prize) in 1988.^[10]

Notable cases have included the trial and conviction of four members of the pressure group, the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, in January 2002, for the theft of signs belonging to English Heritage.^[11] Cases also included the trial and conviction of Tyrone Bates, in March 2009, for the murder of his landlady, Stella Gleadall,^[12] the trial and conviction of Thomas Haigh, in February 2012, for the murder of drug dealers, Brett Flournoy and David Griffiths,^[13] and the trial and conviction of Lee Kendall, in January 2022, for murdering the prison resettlement officer, Michaela Hall.^[14]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Historic England. "Truro Crown Courts (1451232)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
^ "Take a step back in time at The Shire Hall". BBC. 28 October 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "Truro Castle Hill". Gatehouse Gazetteer. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "National Heritage List: Slough trading estate among new additions". BBC News. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "Capital Building Programme". Hansard. 26 January 1996. Retrieved 12 March 2023.
^ "One of Cornwall's most iconic modern buildings has been given protected status". Cornwall Live. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ Blanc, Alan (2014). Internal Components. CRC Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-1317893967.
^ Mulcahy, Linda; Rowden, Emma (2019). The Democratic Courthouse: A Modern History of Design, Due Process and Dignity. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-0429558689.
^ "Truro". Ministry of Justice. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ Harwood, Elain (7 March 2018). "David Shalev obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "How three Cornish men and a raid on King Arthur's castle rocked English Heritage". The Guardian. 19 January 2002. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "Tyrone Bates facing life sentence". Cheshire Live. 24 March 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "Sunny Corner Farm: Rural idyll hid drug murders". BBC News. 14 February 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
^ "Truro killer stabbed girlfriend in the eye after 'campaign of violence'". ITV. 28 January 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2023.