Royal Courts of Justice

The Royal Courts of Justice in London is a Victorian Gothic landmark funded by £700,000 from the unclaimed estates of deceased individuals without heirs. Designed by architect George Edmund Street, who died in 1881 before its completion, the project required clearing a slum of 450 houses. Construction began in 1873 using imported German workers, and Queen Victoria officially opened the building in 1882.

London · from the walk “Beneath the Bar: Lincoln's Inn & Legal London” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL

How was the construction of London's Royal Courts of Justice funded?

Look at this magnificent building before you... the Royal Courts of Justice. It looks like a cathedral, doesn't it? With its soaring arches and stained glass windows, you could easily mistake it for a place of worship. And that's no accident. The man who designed it, George Edmund Street, was a devout Christian who spent most of his career building and restoring Churches. He poured his soul into this place... and it may have cost him his Life.......... Here's where the story gets dark. In eighteen sixty-six, a competition was launched to find an architect. Eleven of London's finest competed, and here's a remarkable detail... every Single one submitted a Gothic design, even those who normally preferred the classical style. Street won, but the judges couldn't agree. They wanted him for the exterior and Charles Barry for the interior. The two couldn't cooperate, and Street was finally made sole architect in eighteen sixty-eight.......... Now, where this building stands... was once a Slum. Around four hundred and fifty houses, home to more than four thousand people, were demolished to clear the site. And how was it all paid for? With Dead people's money. The building was funded by seven hundred thousand pounds accumulated from the estates of people who died without a will and without known heirs. The unclaimed fortunes of the forgotten... built into every stone.......... Construction began in eighteen seventy-three, but trouble came fast. The stonemasons went on Strike. So what did the authorities do? They shipped in German workers to replace them. The fury of the English masons was so intense that the Germans had to be Housed and Fed inside the building itself, and supplies were smuggled in through a secret underground tunnel!......... Street made over three thousand drawings for this project by hand. But the strain was devastating. His first wife died during construction. He remarried, threw himself deeper into the work, and on December the eighteenth, eighteen eighty-one... he suffered a fatal stroke. He was just fifty-seven. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, next to his old master George Gilbert Scott.......... One year later, Queen Victoria opened the building he never saw completed. And today, if you step inside the Great Hall, you'll find a monument to Street by Henry Hugh Armstead... depicting him seated, gazing down, forever absorbed in his work. As he was in life.......... Oh, and one more thing. Room six six six? Professional stone cleaners have Never been able to remove its original painted numbers, despite many efforts. It remains the coldest room in the building... and is rarely used today.

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