Designed by George Edmund Street, who died before it was completed, it is a large grey stone edifice in the Victorian Gothic Revival style built in the 1870s and opened by Queen Victoria in 1882.

Much of the preparatory legal work was completed by Edwin Wilkins Field including promotion of the Courts of Justice Building Act 1865 (28 & 29 Vict.

Its masons led a serious strike at an early stage which threatened to extend to the other trades and caused a temporary stoppage of the works.

However, these disputes were eventually settled and the building took eight years to complete; it was officially opened by Queen Victoria on 4 December 1882.

[7] The design involves a symmetrical main frontage of facing The Strand; the central section, which is stepped back, features an arched doorway leading to the Great Hall; it has a five-part window in a carved surround on the first floor and a gable containing a rose window above.

[1] At the eastern end of the Strand frontage is a tall clock tower topped by a pyramidal roof, finial and flagpole;[1] it contains a clock and five bells (weighing a total of 8¼ tons) by Gillett, Bland & Co..[10] Internally, courts are arranged off the Great Hall which runs north–south; there is a courtyard to the east with offices for courtroom staff arranged round the courtyard.

[14] The Government Art Collection contains a painting by Henry Tanworth Wells depicting Queen Victoria opening the building in 1882.