Tower Bridge Magistrates Court is a Grade II listed building dating back to 1906. The three storey building was designed by John Dixon Butler with a stone and brickwork exterior and an Edwardian Baroque style roof. The Court entrance is flanked by high socles supporting giant Ionic columns to the 1st and 2nd floors with the Royal coat of Arms above. There are 3 courtrooms, two are formal dark wood panelled traditional courtrooms and one is a late 1970's relatively modern courtroom. The court closed it's doors in June of last year and there are now plans for it to be turned into a hotel.
I've had my eye on this for a good while, it has 24hr security inside the building and various people turn up to to work in the offices upstairs. With no obvious ways inside and with so much activity I was thinking of trying for a permission visit but just hadn't got around to it. Then something amazing happened when myself and Gabe walked past at 6am after a night of rooftopping and drinking. We rang the doorbell, security came to the door, barely even looked at us and just waved us straight in as though he was expecting us. We waltzed straight past him like we were meant to be there and disappeared through the first door we could see. We managed an hour sneaking around inside before a different security guy found us and asked us who we were. We gave him a load of cock and bull about how we were doing a photography project and our lecturer had arranged our visit. After checking his records he said we would have to come back another time when permission had been established, apparently the guy who opened the door for us was on his first shift and had assumed we were meant to be there. It was a hilarious adventure from start to finish, the only gutter was we didn't get to see Court No.1. Still, we saw the two other courts, found loads of cells downstairs, and ventured into part of the police station before we got rumbled.
I took a few externals months ago before the hoarding went up....
Reception Area
Took this one on the move so it came out shit but it's the only shot I got facing the main entrance
Court No. 2 (in pitch darkness)
Court No. 3 (with lights on)
Heading for the cells
Check-in Counter
The Cells
Taking the piss
Our friendly but confused escort showing us towards the door
Sneaky last pic before we left, the door to Court No.1 on the far right, the one that got away.....
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Thanks for looking
I've had my eye on this for a good while, it has 24hr security inside the building and various people turn up to to work in the offices upstairs. With no obvious ways inside and with so much activity I was thinking of trying for a permission visit but just hadn't got around to it. Then something amazing happened when myself and Gabe walked past at 6am after a night of rooftopping and drinking. We rang the doorbell, security came to the door, barely even looked at us and just waved us straight in as though he was expecting us. We waltzed straight past him like we were meant to be there and disappeared through the first door we could see. We managed an hour sneaking around inside before a different security guy found us and asked us who we were. We gave him a load of cock and bull about how we were doing a photography project and our lecturer had arranged our visit. After checking his records he said we would have to come back another time when permission had been established, apparently the guy who opened the door for us was on his first shift and had assumed we were meant to be there. It was a hilarious adventure from start to finish, the only gutter was we didn't get to see Court No.1. Still, we saw the two other courts, found loads of cells downstairs, and ventured into part of the police station before we got rumbled.
I took a few externals months ago before the hoarding went up....
Reception Area
Took this one on the move so it came out shit but it's the only shot I got facing the main entrance
Court No. 2 (in pitch darkness)
Court No. 3 (with lights on)
Heading for the cells
Check-in Counter
The Cells
Taking the piss
Our friendly but confused escort showing us towards the door
Sneaky last pic before we left, the door to Court No.1 on the far right, the one that got away.....
[
Thanks for looking
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