Galleries of Justice
Galleries Of Justice in Nottingham are an award-winning family attraction in the heart of the city’s Lace Market district, which offers both a unique family day out and provides an educational insight into the concept of citizenship and the development of the Law of the land over the last few centuries.
Based in the imposing and grandiose old Shire Hall and run by the Museum of Law Trust, the Galleries Of Justice boast a range of state of the art interactive exhibits and audio/visual tours, as well as the staging of Conferences and Events in a stunning location. An entry ticket to the Grade II listed Georgian building grants the visitor to Galleries Of Justice access to a place that has housed law courts since 1375 and a gaol since 1449. A police station operated in the imposing Hall precincts until 1985, and judicial courts that had functioned continuously from the 1780s finally closed their doors some 200 years later in 1986. The family attraction now has a range of displays that have won Renaissance Heritage Awards and Museum of the Year 2007, making it an enthralling family day out.
The Galleries Of Justice provide a gripping insight for ticket holders into crime, punishment and the Law through the ages, the family attraction’s Crime & Punishment Galleries featuring a Georgian debtor’s wing with many original fixtures and fittings, a Napoleonic-era prison block dating back to 1800, a prisoners’ exercise yard where the incarcerated were infrequently allowed to trudge before being thrown back into their cells, a series of subterranean holds that quite literally were “the pits”, an 1833 prison building with its dark cell for punishment of offenders against the regime, a women’s jail with a bath house and laundry, two Victorian Civil & Criminal courtrooms where judges dispensed punishments of considerable severity, a 19th century Grand Jury Room, an Edwardian police station, a re-created 1950s condemned cell where those sentenced to capital punishment were housed prior to their sentence being carried out, and a Contemporary Youth court. Not something you’ll get at many a family attraction!
Interpreters in period costume wander the wards and bring a family day out to the Galleries Of Justice to life, describing the scope of previous statutes and how their enforcement changed over the decades, while ticket holders to Galleries Of Justice can have their fingerprints taken, be volunteered for some back-breaking laundry duty or even be directed to bed down in one of the police cells for the night! The harshness of life in Galleries Of Justice gaol is touched on by hands-on exhibits that illustrate the types of tasks that prisoners were required to perform as a matter of course, such as laundering with dolly tubs and washboards, hard labour and the like.
Uniquely, the Galleries Of Justice family attraction also incorporates man-made caves beneath the site, which were carved out of the sandstone by hand for centuries, and ticket bearers on a family day out can examine 19th Century graffiti in the cells and also on the exercise yard walls.
Other punishments meted out to inmates included banishment overseas for long periods, and the Transportation Gallery at the Galleries Of Justice relates the experience of transported convicts and their perilous journey Down Under. One of the family attraction’s most famous guests was the writer Oscar Wilde, and ticket holders can extend their visit with the A love that dare not speak its name Experience, which provides a dramatised reading of his trial, featuring Merlin Holland, his biographer and grandson. This takes place in the Galleries of Justice Victorian Courtroom and is followed by a Q & A session and access to an Oscar Wilde exhibition.
An informative and fun family day out should also take in the Youth Gallery, which outlines how younger citizens have expressed themselves over the centuries – not always legally! - and highlights youth culture and fads that have grown up from Roman times to the present. Hands-on learning is again the order of the day in the Citizen’s Zone, a national Citizenship & Crime Reduction learning resource, while the Civil Law Gallery focuses on the impact of legislation on ordinary people’s everyday lives, adding an informative element to a fun family day out.
The Galleries Of Justice houses the HM Prison Service Collection in the 1833 wing, with a panoply of period artefacts donated from institutes across the UK, taking in everything from Prisoner Uniforms to Whipping Posts. Ticket holders to the family attraction can also take a Galleries Of Justice Crime & Punishment Tour, which runs through three centuries of crime and punishment of men, women and children offenders, whose crimes ranged from the trivial to the capital. These are described in heart-rending fashion and a mock trial is staged in the foreboding original Victorian Courtroom. There ticket holders to the Galleries Of Justice are directed to put their friends and family in the dock, have them tried for certain misdemeanours, then sentenced by the judiciary and sent down to the original cells. The Tour of the Galleries Of Justice also takes in the laundry, the warren of medieval caves under the site, and the exercise yard and gallows. Costumed prisoner and gaoler guides will lead the way, and point out features both temporal and spiritual – the Galleries of Justice being renowned for the large number of haunted souls – ghosts - said to wander its environs. A spine-tingling family day out – if you’re lucky!
For those seeking to make a visit to Galleries Of Justice even more memorable, there are special evenings (detailed at the Galleries Of Justice website), including a Murder Mystery at the County Gaol Night. Ticket holders are spun a scenario, whereby, in 1856, they’re obliged to turn detective and uncover the perpetrator of a heinous murder committed under the nose of the Prison Governor. Clues hidden in the family attraction’s cells and the dark corridors of the 18th Century County Gaol must be tracked down, and the killer caught before they can strike again! The Galleries of Justice additionally organises Corporate hospitality for meetings and events, with a range of spaces available for conferences, team building, wine tasting and tailored packages utilising costumed actors. In addition, the Galleries Of Justice cater for kids’ occasions with The Narrow Marsh Birthday Party package. It features a 45-minute Caves tour, 30-minute Narrow Marsh tour of the former Victorian slum district with games, puzzles and activities, and Swag bags.
Furthermore, the Galleries Of Justice have ongoing educational tours, a library and archive open to researchers who wish to look further into their past after a family day out, and a Museum Mugshots Cafe and Gift shop, with refreshments. With 80% wheelchair access, the Galleries Of Justice is a fun family day out that everyone can enjoy. Just the ticket!