Sessions house
A sessions house in the United Kingdom was historically a courthouse that served as a dedicated court of quarter sessions, where criminal trials were held four times a year on quarter days. Sessions houses were also used for other purposes to do with the administration of justice, for example as a venue for the courts of assize. The courts of quarter sessions and assize, which did not necessarily sit in dedicated premises, were replaced in England by a permanent Crown Court by the Courts Act 1971, and in 1975 in Scotland by other courts. Several buildings formerly used as sessions houses are still named "Sessions House"; some are still used for the administration of justice, while others have different uses. Some are listed buildings of architectural importance.
An incomplete list of English and Welsh sessions houses:
- Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, formerly sessions house of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of the City of London and of Middlesex
- Sessions House, Beverley, a former courthouse in East Riding of Yorkshire
- Sessions House, Boston, a former courthouse in Lincolnshire
- Sessions House, Clerkenwell, a former courthouse in the London Borough of Islington
- Sessions House, Ely, a former courthouse in Cambridgeshire
- Sessions House, Knutsford, a former courthouse in Cheshire
- Sessions House, Liverpool, a former courthouse in Liverpool
- Sessions House, Northampton, a former courthouse in Northamptonshire
- Sessions House, Peterborough, a former courthouse in Cambridgeshire
- Sessions House, Preston, a courthouse in Lancashire
- Sessions House, Sleaford, a former courthouse in Lincolnshire
- Sessions House, Spalding, a former courthouse in Lincolnshire
- Sessions House, Usk, a former courthouse in Monmouthshire, Wales
- Sessions House, Dublin, Ireland.
- Sessions House, Market Square, Roscommon, Ireland