History
It was built in 1780 for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions of the justices of the peace, replacing nearby Hicks Hall which had fallen into disrepair. The new sessions house also was for some time known as "Hicks Hall".
The Sessions House served as the main judicial and administrative centre of Middlesex until the creation of Middlesex County Council and the London County Council in 1889. In the division of assets between the new bodies in that year, the Sessions House was within the boundaries of the County of London and was allocated to the London County Council. It continued in use for judicial purposes until 1921 when it was sold and all remaining business was transferred to the Sessions House in Newington Causeway. The administration of Middlesex was later based at the Middlesex Guildhall in Westminster, which was also within the County of London.
The old sessions House eventually fell into disrepair. It has however in later years been bought by a masonic trust and restored to its former glory.
Read more about this topic: Middlesex Sessions House
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It’s a very delicate surgical operation—to cut out the heart without killing the patient. The history of our country, however, is a very tough old patient, and we’ll do the best we can.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Sorel (Philip Merivale)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)