SIMON HEFFER HINTERLAND

The saga of a Victorian cathedral to justice that killed its architect

A familiar sight on the television news is of reporters standing outside the Gothic splendour of the Royal Courts of Justice in London. But forget the law: concentrate on the architecture. The courts have their origins in the 1860s, when architecture was deeply under the influence of John Ruskin, who thought that to build in any style other than the Gothic was tantamount to heathenism.

A competition to build the courts was launched in 1866, placing them at the heart of a slum clearance operation on the eastern fringes of the City of Westminster. This was an age when politicians not only took an interest in architecture, but also had the education to do so seriously: two who applied the closest scrutiny were Gladstone and Austen Henry Layard, who a couple of decades earlier had discovered Nineveh. Six architects were invited to compete for the commission, one of whom was George Edmund Street, a 42-year-old former pupil of George Gilbert Scott. Together with GF Bodley and William White, Street developed the school of architecture known as High Victorian.

These architects designed numerous parish churches during the 19th century: Street built several in the diocese of Oxford, emulating the Early English style of the 13th century; which, with its pointed arches, is the predominant influence on the Law Courts. He also pioneered polychromy – the use of courses of different-coloured bricks – found in some of his churches, but not in the stone-built courts.

Street believed he had developed Early English to adapt it to the modern world, and not simply copied it: “copyism”, recreating medieval buildings, was what the High Victorians considered Pugin had produced with the Palace of Westminster. Five of the six architects were medievalists, and several well-known figures, including Scott, refused to enter the competition because of conditions the government sought to impose. When the six proposed plans were displayed early in 1867 their reactionary style outraged the architectural press, reopening an argument between medievalists and classicists that had raged a decade earlier over the building of the Foreign Office. Then, Palmerston – who hated the Gothic – prevailed, and forced Scott, against his will, to design a classical building. This time, despite the venom of the critics, the medievalists prevailed.

It was not, however, easy for Street. When the judges announced their decision in July 1867 they wanted his exteriors and the interiors of Edward

Barry, architect of the Royal Opera House. The two men did not get on but were willing to collaborate; the result would have been a mess. Later, largely for reasons of expense, it was decided to make Street sole architect. He submitted revised plans in 1869 but that did not stop attacks in the press from Barry’s supporters, with one saying the architect’s understanding of his subject had not moved forward beyond 1377.

It was not until the middle of 1873 that building began; and then only because Gladstone, who’d had enough after seven years of wrangling, insisted on Street’s design. Construction took nine years – three times what was expected, because of strikes caused by the importation of European builders and the refusal of the English to work with them. Street did not live to see the Law Courts finished, dead aged 57 from overwork and, not least, the stress of the project. Turrets and pinnacles distinguish the view from outside: but step through the front door and the Great Hall gives the impression of the nave of the cathedral that Street would doubtless have wanted to build, but never did.

JUST SOThe New Law Courts shortly after they opened in 1882