The Former Middlesex Sessions House is a building on Clerkenwell Green

Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

 in the London Borough of Islington

London Borough of Islington

The London Borough of Islington is a London borough in Inner London. It was formed in 1965 by merging the former metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury. The borough contains two Westminster parliamentary constituencies, Islington North and Islington South & Finsbury...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

It was built in 1780 for the Middlesex

Middlesex

Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...

 Quarter Sessions

Quarter Sessions

The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the United Kingdom and other countries in the former British Empire...

 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 is substantially larger than Hicks Hall and was built in the classical

Classical architecture

Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...

 style (in the ionic order

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

). In contrast with the modest sessions houses of earlier days, the new Middlesex Sessions House was built with imperial grandeur in its proportions and decoration. The dome which covers its entrance hall and staircase is a copy of that of the Pantheon

Pantheon, Rome

The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...

 in Rome.

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

London County Council

London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London 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

County of London

The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government Act 1888. The Act created an administrative County of...

 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

Inner London Crown Court

The Inner London Sessions House Crown Court, more commonly known as the Inner London Crown Court, is a Crown Court in London, United Kingdom. It is located in the Sessions House on Newington Causeway at the corner of Harper Road in the Newington area of the London Borough of Southwark in South London...

. The administration of Middlesex was later based at the Middlesex Guildhall

Middlesex Guildhall

The Middlesex Guildhall is the home of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It stands on the south-west corner of Parliament Square in London.-History:...

 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.