Hicks Hall

The hall stood at the start of the Great North Road, running from London to York and Edinburgh, and was routinely used as the datum point for measuring mileages along that route.

[1] In the 1570s, Elizabeth I granted a lease of waste land in the street to the surveyor Christopher Saxton for building a new sessions house, but nothing more is heard of this project.

On 9 October 1660, a grand jury was convened here to try 29 of the men who had signed the death warrant of Charles I, proceedings then continuing at the Old Bailey Sessions House.

In 1682, Count Karl Johann von Königsmarck was acquitted at Hicks Hall of complicity in the murder of Thomas Thynne (although he had in fact almost certainly hired the three assassins).

In 1683, William, Lord Russell was condemned to death at Hicks Hall, following his trial at the Old Bailey, for his involvement in the Rye House Plot.

[5]In addition to the sessions house, the original intention was to incorporate a small prison in the building, to relieve overcrowding at Newgate.

In the late 19th century a set of public toilets were built on the island, described in 1892 as "a modern erection which, if more useful, is less dignified" than the original courthouse.