Image: Snaresbrook Crown Court

Description: Snaresbrook Crown Court. The building was originally constructed as the "Infant Orphan Asylum" on the instigation of a Congregationalist Minister, Andrew Reed, to provide help and protection for middle-class fatherless children without adequate means of support. When the foundation stone was laid in 1841, Prince Albert performed the deed and the event attracted all the great and the good from Victorian society. The architect was Sir Gilbert Scott and the building was completed and opened in 1843, again by Royalty, in this case King Leopold of the Belgians. The asylum housed up to 600 children who had to be elected for admission by voters, a procedure that continued until 1947. The asylum was later renamed the Royal Wanstead School and became a grammar school after the 1944 Education Act. However dwindling school numbers and a lack of funding eventually forced its closure in 1971. The building was subsequently taken over by Her Majesty's Court Service and today is Europe's busiest court, handling in excess of 7,000 cases a year.
Title: Snaresbrook Crown Court
Credit: Geograph
Author: Nigel Cox
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
License: CC BY-SA 2.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes