Sessions House

Located on Old Bailey near Newgate, the Sessions House served as the meeting place for the Chamberlain of London’s court. The mayor and justices of the City also kept sessions in the building’s Sessions Hall (Stow 1598, sig. X6r). While the Sessions House was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, it was rebuilt in 1673 (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, History of The Old Bailey Courthouse). The building was reconstructed again in 1774 and in 1907 was expanded to its modern-day size (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, History of The Old Bailey Courthouse). The courthouse is located in the center of the Agas Map, though it is not labelled. It is also depicted on Rocque and Pine’s 1746 map (A Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, and Borough of Southwark with Contiguous Buildings), where it is labelled Sessions H. The Sessions House is now called the Old Bailey, the Justice Hall, and the Central Criminal Court (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, History of The Old Bailey Courthouse).

References

Cite this page

MLA citation

Rothwell, Molly. Sessions House. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 05 May 2022, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SESS1.htm.

Chicago citation

Rothwell, Molly. Sessions House. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 7.0. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed May 05, 2022. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SESS1.htm.

APA citation

Rothwell, M. 2022. Sessions House. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 7.0). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/7.0/SESS1.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

TY  - ELEC
A1  - Rothwell, Molly
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - Sessions House
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
ET  - 7.0
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/05/05
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SESS1.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/SESS1.xml
ER  - 

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#ROTH4"><surname>Rothwell</surname>, <forename>Molly</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">Sessions House</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, Edition <edition>7.0</edition>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2022-05-05">05 May 2022</date>, <ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SESS1.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/SESS1.htm</ref>.</bibl>

Documents relating to the Old Bailey

The Sessions House was often referred to as the Old Bailey. It is not to be confused with Old Bailey, the street on which the Sessions House was located.

    Personography

    Locations

    Variant spellings