[3] The new building was designed by the city architect, Leonard Cecil Howitt, in the Modernist style, built in Portland stone and was completed in 1962.

[4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nineteen bays facing onto a newly created open area known as Crown Square.

The central section of three bays featured a long flight of steps leading up to a three-door entrance with an ornate canopy supported by poles and surmounted by golden eagles.

[7] The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, commented that the complex was a "come-down after Waterhouse's brilliant early work" at the assize courts.

[1] A "super-courtroom", intended for gang trials and murder cases, with floor-area three times the size of a standard courtroom, was brought into use in September 2021.