Royal Courts of Justice

This guide to the Royal Courts of Justice in London follows George Edmund Street, the architect who won the commission in 1868 to design England's grandest new courthouse and spent thirteen years drawing every tower, capital and window himself. It traces the mounting delays, the criticism from Parliament and the press, and the toll his own former teacher watched him carry as the building rose on the Strand. Look up at the carved stone faces lining the entrance while you listen, each one part of the design Street drew by hand.