Old Bailey
Old Bailey , officially Central Criminal Court ( english Central Criminal Court ), is a courthouse in London . The Crown Court convenes there (Engl. Crown Court ) negotiated significant criminal cases of the United Kingdom .
The building stands on the site of the medieval city gate Newgate and the later Newgate Prison (1188-1902). The name is derived from the location of the court in the street of the same name, between Farringdon Street and St Paul's Cathedral , which follows the course of an earlier fortified wall of London, the Bailey. The first court house on this site was built in 1539. The current neo-baroque building was designed by the architect Edward W. Mountford and inaugurated by King Edward VII in 1907 .
Among the most famous cases heard at the Old Bailey are
- the libel trial launched by the writer Oscar Wilde in 1895
- the trial of the wife murderer Hawley Crippen in 1910
- the trial of suffragette / suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1913
- the 1915 trial of the murderer and bigamist George Joseph Smith
- the trial of the English fascist William Joyce (known as "Lord Haw Haw") in 1945
- the trial of the physicist Klaus Fuchs, known as a nuclear spy, in 1950, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison
- the trial of Derek Bentley , convicted of murder and executed in 1953 in what later turned out to be one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history
- the 1968 trial of the twin brothers Ronald and Reginald Kray , who rioted London in the 1950s and 1960s as gang leaders
- the Guildford Four trial in 1975, which later turned out to be one of Britain's biggest judicial scandals
- the 1981 trial of Peter Sutcliffe , who murdered thirteen women between 1975 and 1980 as a so-called "Yorkshire Ripper"
Popular culture
The Old Bailey is blown up in Alan Moore's comic series V for Vendetta and in the film adaptation of the same name in an attack by the anarchist "V". In the comic books, V begins an extended one-sided conversation with the statue of Justitia on the roof of the dome. In it he confesses his love for her, but accuses her of whoring with the fascist government and tells her about his new lover, anarchy.
Most of the action of Billy Wilder's film Witness for the Prosecution with Marlene Dietrich , Charles Laughton and Tyrone Powe r plays in a courtroom of the Old Bailey. Since the London authorities did not allow photos or filming in the building, production designer Alexandre Trauner only had to recreate the interior using a few quickly made sketches in the film studio.
Web links
- The Proceedings of the Old Bailey London 1674 to 1834 - famous court cases
- Central Criminal Court on the City of London website
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 57 ″ N , 0 ° 6 ′ 7 ″ W.