The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-08 00:00:00

THE NEW ASSIZE COURTS,

THE DESIGNS NOW ON VIEW AT THE EXHIBITION

Rooms, CHURCH-STREET.

It will be generally known that the erection of a large
building to be appropriated as Assize Courts Vice-Chan-
cellor's and Sheriff's Jury Courts, was some time ago deter-
mined upon by the corporate body of this town,—the pre-
sent Court-house, near the Exchange, which was intended
for the Quarter Sessions and Borough Court only, having
been found to be too small and confined for the assize busi-
ness of the southern division of the county, transferred
hither from Lancaster. The ground on which stood the Old
Infirmary and its enclosures, at the north side of the large
area of the New Haymarket, presented a central and eligible
site. The Railway station being on the east side of the
area, and it having been agreed to build St. George's Hall
on the north, (near London-road,) the placing of the assize
courts on the west side, near St. John's Church, would serve
to complete, as it were, three detached sides of a spacious
quadrangle, and at the same time, advantageously concen-
trate the business of the courts in the immediate contiguity
of the railway terminus.
There can, we think, exist no question that the ground re-
ferred to offered eligible sites for both the intended build-
ings ; but it appears to us that a palpable mistake has been
made in the site respectively fixed upon for each. According
to present, and we presume, definite arrangements, the
' high" ground is allotted to the " higher" building, al-

though harmony in the tout ensemble, and the absexice of
deterioration to either by contrast was desirable. The
Pacing southward, is to occupy the high ground
opposite Islington market, with the Railway station on the
left: and to the Court-house, the elevation of which, to
render it commodious, cannot be so great, is assigned the
much lower sloping ground on the right. The Hall will be
90 feet in height ; and as the Court-house will be but 78, by
the design adopted, and the land is moreover considerably
lower, particularly at the south end (about 27 feet), we are
not singular in our apprehensions, that the effect, however
plausibly it may be otherwise produced in the perspective
view of the successful architect, will be detrimental to the
else noble aspect of the latter,—as, indeed, of the quadrangle
as a whole. But to proceed :
The Mayor and Corporation, desirous of producing, in the
building for the Courts, a specimen of architecture that
should be worthy of the age ; and wishful, the better to at-
tain that end, to bring into competition the most distin-
guished architects of the day, issued a prospectus, with in-
structions, detailing their views, and liberally offering to the
author of the design most approved a premium of three hun-
dred guineas, and to the producer of the next best the sum
of two hundred. It was specified in the conditions that the
designs should be exclusively of " Grecian" or of " Roman"
style, and that the estimate for the whole work should not

exceed £50,000. Each design was to bear an anonymous
motto or signatUre, so that- the authors being unknown, their
respective merits might be impartially appreciated.
The pecuniary inducement thus held forth, and probably
still more the honourable ambition to achieve celebrity, drew
forth the energies of an unusual number of aspirants in va-
rious parts of the kingdom, including many individuals who
already enjoyed high professional reputation.
No fewer than eighty-five separate designs were sent, each
shown in perspective views, elevations, plans, and sections,
and accompanied by descriptions, chiefly in manuscript, a
few only being printed. We can readily believe that the
Committee appointed to examine them, and who were, we
learn, assisted by the able Surveyor of the Corporation, had
a task to perform of no ordinary difficulty—one requiring,
indeed, refinement of taste and clearness of judgment. It
was found necessary, as the only practical mode of proceeding,
to reduce the whole number to thirty, by putting aside all
those that were evidently of inferior architectural merit, or
objectionable in interior arrangement and detail. The thirty
were afterwards reduced, by a, similar process, to ten ; and
these, after long and mature consideration, to two,—to the
author of the finally preferred one of which (the design to be
adopted) the first premium was awarded, and to the other
the second. The former will, doubtless, also receive the
emolument arising from his superintendance of the erection
of the building, as well as of St. George's Hall, for the de-
sign of which he was also the successful competitor.
Considerable interest having been excited amongst the ad-
mirers of the architectural improvements of the town, to see
the designs, before they were returned to the respective artists,
an arrangement to gratify the public was made by the Mayor
and the Committee, and the whole were shown gratuitously
during the last week. It was intended to withdraw them on
Saturday last; but the great attendance of respectable par-
ties, including many ladies, and the ascertained fact that
many who had not had an opportunity of being present
were anxious to inspect them, induced the Committee to
agree to keep open for another (the present) week, during
which the rooms have hitherto been again numerously and
fashionably attended. The local interest of the subject may
render acceptable the following short account of