[5] It was designed by Jacobs Babtie[6] in the Modernist style, built by Sir Robert McAlpine at a cost of £20 million and was completed in 2004.

[7][8][9] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing west along Southernhay Gardens.

The left hand section was faced in white cladding and fenestrated at the corners by four small casement windows on two levels; the central section featured a three-storey atrium, while the right hand section, which was also three storeys high, featured a narrow full height blind wall with a Royal coat of arms at second floor level and, to the right of that a curved section with three tri-partite windows at second floor level.

[10] Notable cases included the trial and conviction of Lisa Hayden-Johnson, in January 2010, on charges of child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.

[11][12][13] They also included the trial and conviction of two men, in April 2013, over a plot to rob and murder the singer, Joss Stone, at her home in Cullompton, Devon.