Royal Courts of Justice

The Royal Courts of Justice serves as the grand stage for the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. You are looking at a Victorian Gothic masterpiece that required the demolition of over four hundred slum houses to clear the massive six-acre site. Opened by Queen Victoria in eighteen eighty-two, the building contains over three and a half miles of corridors and is constructed from thirty-five million Portland stone bricks. Its design was the result of a fierce competition among architects who were initially told they were submitting plans for a cathedral.