For the first time since my divorce hearing which, I think, took place there, I was at the Law Courts in the Strand the other day.   I had heard of a case coming up where I would have done exactly as the person on trial had done, so I had a particular interest in seeing and hearing how things panned out.

Determined to be there from the start and experience every step in the ancient procedure, from the entrance of the judge to his or her departure, I arrived in good time but, even so, managed to miss the first ten minutes, for I got lost in the building.  Street* wasn’t called Street for nothing.

It was entirely my fault, not theirs.   I had got through the frisking successfully, but didn’t have the details of the case which would have enabled the friendly man at the information desk to send me to the right Court.   Instead, he furnished me with the directions to Room 240 – the Administrative Court – where, he said, they know everything.   And so they did.

I have kept the half-sheet of A4 on which the directions to Room 240 had been typed, on what must surely have been a manual typewriter, so bold and homely is the type face.

       Go up a few steps turn right

       Go through 2 sets of doors

       Turn left

       Continue on until . . .

Good plain English and I, who have to hold a map upside down, if we are driving South, had no trouble following the instructions.

To be honest, I was not lost at all, lost only in the best sense, like lost in a book, as I made my way through this vast and wonderful building to find myself, at last, just where I was meant to be. But it turned out this office did not open its doors until the very moment at which the trial began.

Even so, given the choice between saturation in the marble density and calm of Street’s creation or being on time, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the first.  The building itself exudes confidence in what goes on within its walls – badly needed in these days of the ‘so-called’ Judge. It does not seem absurd to Look for Justice here.

As for what took place in the court-room itself: that must wait for another day.

 

                                                                                    *George Edward Street, 1824-81, architect