# Former Derby and South Derbyshire Magistrates Court - June 08



## thompski (Jun 22, 2008)

Myself and Saigon Ob decided to have a mooch around the former Magistrates Court before the redevelopment begins. Much of the history of the place was covered in the previous report.

In art deco fan communities Derby is often listed alongside London and Liverpool for its art deco and early modernist architecture, which is scattered around the city in the form of shops, housing, factories and cinemas. At the centre of this was Derby's pre WW2 borough architect, Charles Herbert Aslin whose art deco influenced architecture was part of the large scale regeneration of Derby's riverside.

Sadly by 2010 the only examples of this scheme will be Exeter Bridge, the Council House (though is sinking) and the Magistrates which is to be converted to offices. Unfortunately with the Magistrates Court I fear many of its fine details could be lost.

Bit of a challenge finding the way in but once inside no trouble... until we left, though that's not important, though I discourage future explorers from visiting following our experiences. The 1960s block wasn't so easy however personally it offered little merit other then the opportunity to go on the rooftop and to look at the Nuclear warning system.












The fine staircase which greeted the wrong side of the law....





No broken porcelain to report....





The interior is so much nicer than the exterior...










One of the buildings impressive sky lights.










ORDER *bang bang* Saigon Ob in the dock with Judge Thompski... well what else did you expect us to do 





Art deco light and ceiling





Now for the cells















And a rooftop shot, the building to the left is the council house, the central feature of the riverside regeneration scheme. If you look inside both the court and the council house share alot in common. The council house was meant to be completed in 1939 (I believe the date stone on the portico entrance reads this) however it wasn't until much later (1950s I think) due to the outbreak of the second world war. Thankfully it remained true to the original designs, despite the differences between pre and post WW2 tastes.


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## smileysal (Jun 22, 2008)

Excellent pics guys, absolutely love that stair case, and liking you two in the court room lol. Well, did you get off, or sentenced to a long prison term? hehehe. 

Nice one chaps,

 Sal


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## The Pirate (Jun 22, 2008)

I got sentenced to a few days with stinging legs as my urbax wear isn`t really up to scratch....Shorts and deep nettles = throbbing ancles for a day...But it was worth it


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## smileysal (Jun 22, 2008)

ouch on the nettle stings. 

 Sal


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## PANiC (Jun 22, 2008)

nice shots, sounds like you had fun... for a while at least


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## The Pirate (Jun 22, 2008)

Yeah it was a really good explore...Unfortunately we had to show security where we got in so future explores might be hard...

My camera doesn`t make the place look as good as thompski`s did but here are a few i liked...


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## MD (Jun 22, 2008)

good photos 
looks a good explore love the art deco stuff


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## johno23 (Jun 22, 2008)

Nice work guysYou have got some great shots of some of the original features,hope they retain them when they change the use of the building


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## thompski (Jun 23, 2008)

Wilson Bowden (whom are redeveloping the site) are meant to be reusing the Magistrates Court for small businesses, and the rooms within are pretty good size for that. The redevelopment is meant to retain and restore the original features, we found a locked up room with various ornamentation inside - so perhaps they'll be true to their word.

Maber are designing the new building, whom also designed the Joseph Wright Centre. Like a lot of new buildings around the city seems to pay homage to the cities early modernist past.


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## Solo1 (Jun 23, 2008)

Tried to crack this a year or so ago , so glad to see what we missed , nicely reported..


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## Keep out! (May 4, 2009)

*Too late again!*

I've just been poking round the outside, round the outside(buffalo girls) at this place after going to see the peregrines at the cathedral.

Thought I'd do a search on here before posting my external pictures of the place. Access looks easy nowaday but I don't fancy any entanglements with uniformed people thank you very much. In saying that if anyone fancies it............


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## The_Revolution (May 4, 2009)

Do you mean the Police station building or the Court building (there's two buildings joined together by a walkway which is bricked up to prevent acess between the two)? Link

The court was sealed after this explore. The Police station only looks easy because the boards are damaged. Has something changed recently (probably best discussed in PMs only)?


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## jonney (May 5, 2009)

Nicest court building I've seen and i've been in a few (was a bit of a tearaway as a lad) was there no holding cells (the grafitti in them are usually good for a laugh)


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## lnapps (Feb 28, 2010)

Do you know if this building is still there today?


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## smileysal (Feb 28, 2010)

lnapps said:


> Do you know if this building is still there today?



You could always go and have a look!!!


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## The_Revolution (Mar 1, 2010)

lnapps said:


> Do you know if this building is still there today?



Nah it's gone.

They're building a statue to Lara Croft there.


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## thompski (Mar 1, 2010)

I heard they dropped a digger on it?


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## smileysal (Mar 2, 2010)

The_Revolution said:


> Nah it's gone.
> 
> They're building a statue to Lara Croft there.



Damn, I'd forgotten about the Lara Croft statue.  I remember seeing the plans for it a while ago. cheers Rev.


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