Shire Hall, Nottingham

Shire Hall, now home to the National Justice Museum, is one of Nottingham’s most historic buildings, standing on High Pavement in the Lace Market. With origins tracing back to Norman times, the site has seen centuries of law and order unfold-its earliest recorded use as a court dates to 1375, and as a prison to 1449.

The present structure was built between 1770 and 1772 under architect James Gandon during the reign of George III, replacing earlier buildings on the site. It served as the county assizes and judicial headquarters. Over time, the building expanded: wings were added in the early 19th century, and later renovations by architects Richard Charles Sutton and T.C. Hine helped shape the Hall’s current form. Notably, a devastating fire in 1876 destroyed much of William Bliss Sanders’ Italianate redesign, prompting Hine to oversee a substantial rebuild between 1876 and 1879.

Executions were transferred to the site from Gallows Hill in 1832. Public hangings took place until 1864, carried out on a scaffold in front of the central entrance. The last execution at the site occurred in 1877.

A police station was added next door in 1905, and while the County Council relocated in 1954, the building continued to serve as Nottingham’s courthouse until the opening of the new Crown Court in 1991.

In 1995, Shire Hall reopened as the Galleries of Justice Museum later rebranded as the National Justice Museum in 2017. Today, the museum explores themes of crime and punishment through interactive exhibits, preserved courtrooms, a Victorian gaol, and even the dock from London’s Bow Street Magistrates’ Court. This Grade II* listed building remains a powerful reminder of Nottingham’s legal history-and a place where justice was once visibly, and sometimes brutally, done.