Born in 1752, Thomas Hardwick Jr. was raised in the family business. His father, Thomas Hardwick Sr., was a prosperous master mason who established an architectural business in Brentford, West London.

Thomas Hardwick Jr. eventually trained as an apprentice under the Scottish architect William Chambers, the creator of Somerset House in London. Hardwick was said to have had a good relationship with his mentor and excelled in his own right, joining the Royal Academy of Art and winning the first silver medal awarded by the Academy in Architecture.

Once qualified, Hardwick primarily focused on designing and creating churches in and around London, with his most notable work being the Church of St. Mary in London. As his reputation grew, Hardwick also took on apprentices, including J.M.W. Turner, whom it’s said he advised to concentrate on painting when Turner tried his hand at architecture.

As Hardwick was rising to architectural fame, significant changes were taking place within the British legal system to address the huge number of criminal cases emerging in the late 18th century.

Driven by massive population growth (the population of England and Wales rose from 6 million in 1746 to 12 million in 1851), rapid industrialisation and economic depression, more people were being pushed into poverty. As a result, many turned to crime to feed their families. From petty larceny to vagrancy, the existing courts simply couldn’t handle the overwhelming number of cases.

Dorchester had a new prison built in 1795 to accommodate this, but it was also decided that a new Crown Court should be constructed to meet this increasing need. Impressed by his growing portfolio of buildings in London, it was decided that Thomas Hardwick would be brought to Dorchester to transform the old, unfit Shire Hall into the building that you can visit today.

Hardwick set to work, planning to create a symmetrical, U-shaped building with two courts flanking to the left and right of the central entrance. Originally, Shire Hall housed both a civil court (also known as the Nisi Prius court) and a criminal court. The Nisi Prius court was removed in the 1880s, however, as it was deemed too expensive to run both.

One of the key elements of Hardwick’s design was the striking front façade, made of expensive Portland stone, with three large doors mirrored by those on the interior. As Shire Hall was one of the few buildings accessible to people of all social classes, these doors served to separate various groups: those attending the criminal court on the right, the civil court on the left, and the Judges and Grand Jury entering through the larger central door.

Shire Hall, taken in 1859.

When designing the holding cells, efforts were made to cut costs (likely as the façade had been so expensive!). The building contract specified that old materials should be used for the interior walls, despite the active brick industry in South Dorset at the time. These holding cells were intended to be communal, holding up to 35 people at a time, to process as many people as possible on trial days.

The Georgian legal system emphasised deterrence over reform, which heavily influenced Hardwick’s design. Spyholes were placed in the walls opposite the cells to keep a watchful eye on those trapped in the cells, and metal grates were installed to allow the voices of the court to seep into the dark spaces below. In what is now known as the Tolpuddle cell (where the six agricultural labourers were held in 1834), original planning documents show how prisoners could be secured to the fireplace using chains. These elements were intended to intimidate, giving a taste of what was to come for people awaiting their trial.

The courtroom itself was also part of Hardwick’s design and is remarkably similar to courtrooms today, featuring a judge’s bench, jury box, public gallery, and dock. The most significant difference would be the addition of a Grand Jury Box, which you can read more about in our blog here:

Where did you come from, where did you go? – The role of the Grand Jury in English Courts

The court’s tiered flooring raised the Judge and Grand Jury above the unfortunate individual standing in the dock. In an intentional design by Hardwick, the person in the dock was placed below everyone around them, to be looked down upon by both the wealthy and the common folk alike. After spending three to four hours in a dark cell, walking into this setting would have been a terrifying experience.

Additions have been made to the building since Hardwick first began the project, such as the introduction of the Victorian holding cells in the 1880s. Hardwick’s foundation, however, remains over 200 years later, with the court and cells at Shire Hall Museum standing as one of the best-preserved examples of a Georgian courthouse in the UK.

To explore the different elements of Hardwick’s historic design for yourself, visit Shire Hall Museum today.